Seal Beach and coastal Orange County brace for storm, surf

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/KPCC

Bulldozers reinforce sand berm in Seal Beach

Since 10:30 this morning Orange County fire crews have been reinforcing 15-foot tall sand berms in Seal Beach to protect oceanfront homes from growing surf.

For more than two hours bulldozers reinforced the berm and created a place for the water to go in case surf and waves overwhelm the city-created sand wall.

Stan Sutton, with the Orange County Fire Authority, supervised the work of two bulldozers. "This part of the beach here in front of the homes is the lowest portion, and so what we’re trying to do between the high tide, with the surf as well as the rain water, to keep it out of those houses, we’re creating a catch basin so all the rain, all the water will drain into the corner there and stay there and percolate into the ground versus going into the houses."

In spite of the rain, Sutton says conditions today are favorable. After he’s done in Seal Beach he says he’s heading to Modjeska Canyon in the Orange County mountains, which suffered some mudslides from yesterday’s downpour.

Longtime Seal Beach resident Joe Kalmick stood on top of the berm, surveying the bulldozer work on one side and growing surf lapping onto the base of the sand wall on the other. "I think with the action that they're taking now, in giving a place for the water to go, I think, unless something else happens, we'll be OK."

Kalmick recalls storms in 1983 and 1995 that did cause damage to homes, including his own. Until now the only damage to his property is a roof leak at his Seal Beach business.