Waves Pound Laguna Beach Coastline Sunday: Photos

LAGUNA BEACH, CA — High tides and powerful surf continued to pound the Laguna Beach coast Sunday morning.

City crews were hard at work through the weekend reinforcing a steep, roughly eight-foot berm along vulnerable portions of Main Beach.

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Spectators clustered along Main Beach Boardwalk to catch a viewing of the powerful wave event during high tide Sunday morning with thermoses and cameras in hand.

Residents captured photos of the waves, which relentlessly pounded the shoreline all through the morning, with some even snapping selfies or posing for pictures against the waves.

Though the mood was light, with onlookers chatting amongst themselves about the water conditions or their Sunday mornings thus far, no one dared try to make their way past the shoreline — and Laguna Beach lifeguards watched the shoreline closely to ensure it remained so.

From Main Beach, residents could spot where the savage tides pounded million-dollar homes clustered along the Laguna Beach coast.

By 10 a.m. the waves — coming in sets of threes — began lapping up the edge of the boardwalk and washing over the feet of several spectators. Thirty minutes later, a city worker was seen behind the wheel of a sand-digger working to ensure that the berm remained in place while spectators watched.

According to the city, the powerful tides Sunday impacted Aliso Beach to the point of closure.

"High surf and tides are expected to continue over the next 10 to 14 days," the city said in a statement. "For public safety, the Aliso Beach parking lot will close intermittently during this swell event."

The extra preparation comes after flooding impacted the City of Laguna Beach last week, triggering closures on Coast Highway and other Laguna Beach main streets and eating away at the city's pristine coastline.

"Laguna Beach —along with other coastal communities— is experiencing an unusually large and long-lasting ocean swell event," the city said in a statement. "Combined with high tides, the likely impacts of a Kelvin wave, and the remnants of Hurricane Rachel, the event is causing repeated flooding at Aliso Beach, Main Beach, and Broadway & Coast Highway. We expect these conditions to continue for about the next two weeks, mostly during morning and evening high tides."