Giant rockfall compromises Calif. beach route as waves pound shoreline

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. — At around 6:30 p.m. Monday, a group of Orange County residents gathered with their dogs at the top of Laguna Beach’s Agate Street staircase. And as the orange sun dipped behind the vast Pacific Ocean, they discussed their battered, crumbling coastline. 

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The night before, a massive hunk of sandstone had broken off just beneath the stairs, crashing into the ocean and muddying the rough surf, with no injuries reported. In a post on Instagram, the city of Laguna Beach said that fire and marine safety crews responded and closed access, and that a geologist would survey the site. The note also warned people to follow the posted closures and stay out of the area. 

The residents weren’t sure if El Niño, the intense weather pattern expected to assail Southern California’s coastline through the spring, was fully to blame. But since Sunday, round after round of Hurricane Polo’s intense waves have been slamming the Southern California coast, triggering a coastal flood advisory that will remain in effect until 5 p.m. Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.   

It wasn’t possible to view the rockslide’s damage from above, where barricades and caution tape blocked off the stairway. Instead, some curious onlookers were descending to the beach via Bluebird Canyon Drive to view the slide, and also walking a short distance south along Ocean Way, where other evidence of coastal damage remains on full display.

Just a block down on Ocean Way, another staircase to the beach was blocked off with safety barricades because a couple of weeks ago, a nearby seawall had started cracking, residents said. In addition, two properties adjacent to the seawall were “yellow-tagged,” meaning their use had been restricted due to safety concerns. “Rear area (not house) has been undermined making the rear area unsafe,” one tag reads. “Please do not enter areas that will lead to the rear of this building.”

At the bottom of Bluebird Canyon Drive, it was possible during low tide to rock-hop over to view the Agate Street stairway rockslide. Local surfer Charles McMahon, who owns the outdoor adventure company La Vida Laguna, was in the process of viewing the slide with his son. 

McMahon is 41 and grew up in Laguna Beach, he told SFGATE, so he’s seen some pretty wild weather hit the coast during El Niño events and other storms over the years. “But this [El Niño] is the biggest ever, right?” he said. “And not only that, we have a Kelvin wave coming.” 

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The Kelvin wave, a gargantuan band of warm water moving slowly across the Pacific toward Southern California, will likely raise sea level by an entire foot, according to experts, worsening coastal flooding during high tides and storms later this month. 

“A 7-foot high tide will now be an 8-foot high tide,” McMahon said. “So whatever erosion has been going on is going to be exacerbated in the next month, especially when we get the El Niño rains and high surf.”

McMahon isn’t stoked about the erosion of local beaches or damage to coastal structures, and he’s no fan of climate change in general. But he does see a couple of silver linings to this season’s El Niño.

For one, there are some unusual creatures showing up in Southern California waters, like Monday’s pod of orcas seen off Newport Beach. And then there are, of course, the waves. 

“As a surfer, I like big waves,” McMahon said. “You’ve always got to take the positive with the negative.”