Gigantic storm-driven waves hammered Pacifica yesterday, pulverizing a portion of seawall to rubble and threatening to flood beachfront homes.
And as it had for much of the week, the weather raised havoc throughout the state, soaking some hilly regions with more than 5 inches of rain, inundating low-lying areas and tying up both air and vehicular traffic.
In Pacifica, where El Nino storms of three years ago destroyed seven houses on Esplanade Avenue, nature put on a particularly impressive display. As residents watched in slack-jawed amazement, lines of 25-foot breakers rolled in, smacked into the bottom of the Pacifica pier, then crashed into a seawall, sending columns of foam 50 feet into the air.
“I’ve lived on the Mississippi gulf coast, I’ve been in some really big hurricanes, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Bill King, who works in the Pacifica area.
Town resident Deborah Hughes said she was worried the Pacifica pier might topple, and her house, a couple of blocks from the beach, might flood. But she also found the huge surf enthralling.
“It’s like a train wreck,” she said. “You can’t take your eyes away.”
Aided by the highest tide of the season — 7 feet — the massive combers knocked out 30 feet of Pacifica’s seawall as easily as a child toppling a sand sculpture.
As nervous residents watched, equipment operators driving graders and dump trucks on Beach Boulevard, adjacent to the seawall, shoveled crushed rock into the breach. Across the narrow street, apartment buildings and houses are tightly clustered.
“I don’t really think that’s doing any good,” said Jeff Keene, who watched from the vantage of his apartment, about 50 yards away. “The surf is washing it out as fast as they can dump it in.”
The pier was closed. Residents and officials expressed concerns that the battering could damage the pier, which has already been undermined by years of heavy weather.
Towering surf also compelled officials to close public beaches and beachside roadways in Santa Cruz, Aptos and Capitola. Waves estimated at 20 feet splashed beach homes in Aptos, but caused no serious flooding.
Elsewhere in the Bay Area, authorities said the storm might have contributed to at least three traffic deaths, one in San Jose and two on Interstate 280 in Daly City.
The weather also caused big problems at Bay Area airports. By yesterday afternoon, at least 169 flights had been canceled at San Francisco International Airport, and flight delays of as long as four hours were typical.
Wind and tide also made things ugly in the bay. Four-foot swells generated high surf along San Francisco’s Embarcadero, forcing officials to close northbound traffic from Folsom to Mission streets. Salt water 3 feet deep collected at the foot of Mission.
Bay ferryboats and tugboats kept running, though they rocked and rolled like ocean liners in the deep Atlantic during a Nor’easter. Landing the ferries was tricky.
“We have to time (the landings) to combers coming from the direction of the Bay Bridge before we put down the ramps,” said Mike Smith, a terminal attendant at the Golden Gate ferry dock. One woman was hesitant to get aboard. “I told her, ‘Every trip is an adventure, ma’am. No extra charge.’ ”
Alcatraz remained closed while workers continued to repair the weather-damaged gangway and dock that left more than 300 people temporarily imprisoned on the island Wednesday. The closure could continue into the weekend.
Minor flooding problems were reported around the area yesterday. In Marin, the high tide hit at about 11:30 a.m., covering Miller Avenue in Mill Valley and Bridgeway Avenue in Sausalito in 2 feet of water.
For fair-weather fans, the best news yesterday was that the rain might be coming to an end for a while.
With this storm headed south, said George Cline of the National Weather Service, “we should probably have nice weather, probably beginning this weekend and continuing into next week.”Chronicle staff writers Peter Fimrite, Steve Rubenstein, Maria Alicia Gaura, Pamela J. Podger, Angelica Pence and Chuck Squatriglia contributed to this report. / E-mail Glen Martin at glenmartin@sfchronicle.com, and Carl Nolte at cnolte@sfchronicle.com.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO, In Pacifica, 25-foot breakers crashed into the bottom of the Pacifica pier, left, then smacked into a seawall, sending a spray of foam 50 feet into the air. / Eric Luse/The Chronicle
Copyright 2001 The Chronicle Publishing Co.
The San Francisco Chronicle
JANUARY 12, 2001, FRIDAY, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A21
LENGTH: 705 words
HEADLINE: Spectacular Surging Surf Wreaks Havoc in the Bay Area;
Surging Surf Shatters Part Of A Seawall;
Homes in Pacifica facing flood threat
SOURCE: Chronicle Staff Writers
BYLINE: Glen Martin, Carl Nolte
DATELINE: Pacifica
BODY:
LOAD-DATE: March 20, 2001