Hurricane Marie Sends Waves into Seal Beach, Flooding Streets,

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Rising seawater powered by a storm surge from Hurricane Marie inundated an oceanfront street in Seal Beach early today, triggering a vigorous response.

The water cleared a 2 1/2 foot wall along several blocks of East Seal Way and was approaching ground floor apartments this morning, said resident Melody Sanford.

Another resident, Blanca Dubonbrown who lives in a two-story apartment in the 1000 block of East Seal Way, said the water had flooded the ground floor of the residence she shares with her husband, Jaime.

Dubonbrown said she went to bed at 10 p.m. Tuesday, then got out of bed around 11 p.m. and found that her bedroom was under three inches of water. She said the water also damaged pictures, carpet and furniture on the ground floor.

“It’s been terrible,” Dubonbrown said. “I was getting ready with the sandbags, but it was too late when I tried to put them up.”

A neighbor who was helping clean the apartment said there was 2 1/2 feet of water in its carport.

Emergency crews were deployed this morning to beat back the surge as much as possible.

Seal Beach Marine Safety Chief Joe Bailey said crews were trying to dig a channel to allow water that had breached a beach wall to drain back into the ocean.

At the same time, Bailey said, a sand berm was being erected to hold back the storm surge before the next high tide, around 10:55 a.m. today.

Bailey said the water was two feet deep along the roadway late Tuesday night, a consequence of the rising level of water from the storm surge and a powerful southern swell.

“I’ve been doing this for 25 years, and this is the biggest southern swell I’ve seen,” Bailey said.

Firefighters from the Orange County Fire authority were placing and distributing 1000 sandbags along the street, said fire Capt. Steve Concialdi.

Two bulldozers and a 23-man hand crew were also scheduled to be working at the scene, Concialdi said.

“It’s hit Seal Beach extremely hard,” Concialdi said of the storm surge.

Another breach was reported less than a mile to the north, in the Peninsula neighborhood of Long Beach, where a sand berm was overtopped by the storm surge, causing minor street flooding, according to Long Beach Fire Department Public Information Officer Jake Heflin.

--City News Service

PHOTO Patch file photo.