On the morning of October 9 the high tide at Newport Beach ran 20 inches above the tide table, which the City's utilities director called record-breaking. Fifteen to twenty blocks of the Balboa Peninsula flooded, vehicles were stranded, and water stood at front doors. The City declared a local emergency. The sea is running 4 to 6 inches higher than the table under every tide this autumn, and the king tides fall on November 24 to 26, December 23 to 25 and January 21 to 22. The street drains when the tide turns. The ground under the house does not.
A flooded street is a flooded crawlspace and a wet slab. Water enters at the slab edge, through utility penetrations and up through the concrete, and it is seawater, so it leaves salt that keeps drawing moisture for months.
Balboa Peninsula and West Newport stand on sand a few feet above the sea, between the ocean and the harbor. Groundwater there follows the tide, and a block that saw no water in the street can still have it under the floor. Damp floors with no rain, white crust on the garage slab and musty rooms are the signs.
Seawater at a front door is seawater in the bottom plate of the wall. Framing and drywall that stay wet grow mold within days; a garage slab that took the tide stays damp until the salt is dealt with.
Not on the sand? The same higher sea lifts the water table under low-lying streets blocks inland, so a slab can take water from below with no wave in sight. How the groundwater behind the beachfront works →
Newport Beach has brought its replenishment forward: about 100,000 cubic yards of Santa Ana River sand to West Newport this month. That is the beach. The house is a moisture survey, drainage and a sump where the slab is taking water from below, membrane and sealing at the slab edge and penetrations, dry-out, and removal of what cannot be dried, with everything photographed and dated for the adjuster first.
San Clemente puts its sand deficit at 2 to 4 million cubic yards and sends Measure M, a 1% sales tax for sand and fire protection, to November's ballot. Newport Beach brings its replenishment forward: about 100,000 cubic yards of Santa Ana River sand to West Newport later this month.
Voice of OCLocal emergency. The morning high tide came in 20 inches above the prediction, which the city's utilities director called record-breaking; 15 to 20 blocks flooded, vehicles stranded, water at front doors.
ABC7The whole coast, dated and sourced →
In this order. Documenting and drying happen the same day; documenting comes first.
If you smell gas, get out and call the gas company from outside. Switch off power to circuits that are wet. Do not enter a red-tagged house; a yellow tag says what you may do.
Close the valve if it is a pipe. If it is the sea or the ground, there is nothing to close; move what you can above the water line and leave the rest in place for the photographs.
Every room, the water line on the walls, the floor, the garage, the contents, the outside of the house and the beach or street. Phone timestamps are fine. Nothing gets dried, moved or thrown out before it is on record.
A pin meter on walls and floors, room by room, written down with the time. If you do not have one, we bring ours; the readings date the damage.
Call your insurer the same day, say you are limiting the damage, and send the photographs. Keep the City's tag notice if there is one. Wave and flood damage is often a flood-policy question; the record matters either way.
Extraction, air movers and dehumidifiers the same day. Wet drywall and insulation that took seawater come out; the salt stays in whatever is left. Do not tear out beyond what has been photographed.
A damp floor with no rain, a salt crust on concrete, doors that bind and new cracks mean the water is under the slab. That is a moisture survey, not a guess, and it is where we start.
Groundwater under the slab, pushed up by a sea that is higher than the tide table. Concrete is porous, and the push is about 64 pounds per square foot for every foot of seawater above the underside of the slab. A moisture survey finds where it is coming through; a drain and sump under or around the slab take the pressure off. It is not a plumbing leak unless the meter moves with every tap closed.
Have the house surveyed now so the baseline is on record, then close the paths the survey finds: slab penetrations, the slab edge, the garage threshold, a sump where the water table is reaching the slab. Sandbags and the street are the City's; the house is what we can change in the weeks between now and November 24.
No. The street, the storm drains and the tide valves are the City's. We deal with what the water did once it reached the lot: under the slab, in the walls, in the garage, and the mold that follows.
One licensed contractor answers, finds the source, makes the repair and writes the report. Not a call center that passes your job to whoever is nearby.
No photograph of the home leaves the file without written consent. We work through the estate manager, the architect or the family office when that is how the house is run.
Other coasts: Capistrano Beach · Long Beach Peninsula · Malibu · home
L3 Energy Construction LLC, CSLB #1149191, Southern California coast, Malibu to La Jolla. Water-intrusion practice since 1999 as Hydrotech Construction, including construction-defect expert witness work. Figures in the log are as reported by the linked sources; the reading of what they mean inside a house is ours. Illustrative, not a survey of any property.