Pier Damage
Mad Sea Waves On A Tear At Santa Monica
Santa Monica, Sept. 4.—It's a few days since your correspondent was in conversation with an “old salt” who commented on the early appearance of the first flock of pelicans, which was then soaring overhead, as being a forerunner of an early fall and a sure sign of a coming storm at sea. The forecast was a true one, for last night and today a heavy sea, the result of a storm outside the bay, has been running, carrying everything of a moveable nature before it. Old habitants of the ocean front say they have never seen such might swells nor such gigantic combers during any preceding summer season as have been sweeping in yesterday and today, to the delight of spectators and the consternation of yachting men...
One hundred feet of the old iron pier belonging to the Santa Fe company, which was condemned by the trustees last week and ordered removed was carried inshore today by old ocean’s might sweep, thus saving the company the trouble, and those who incline toward mal de mer did not linger long on the new pleasure wharfs while the breakers were rolling.—Los Angeles Herald, September 5, 1898
Brisk Coast Wind
A cold coast wind has been blowing for the past twenty-four hours. Sunday night it developed into quite a respectable windstorm, but fortunately it did not last long. Heavy seas however, have prevailed at Newport and other points along the southern coast, indicating a severe mid-ocean storm.
A portion of the end of the wharf at Newport succumbed to the great walls of water that came rolling shoreward during the night, and the breakers climbed almost out of their great basin in an apparent endeavor to reach the sand dunes toward the bluffs.—Los Angeles Times, February 20, 1900
Long Beach Pier Damaged
Los Angeles, Sept. 7.—From the various seaside resorts came reports that danger from the high seas is not yet over, and it is believed the climax of the unusual marine disturbance will not be reached until Friday morning, when the tide will be at its height. In ordinary circumstances the time of the highest tide would give no concern, but taken in conjunction with the fact of the present heavy sea, it may bring disaster in certain places.
Long Beach Pier Damaged. At first much satisfaction was expressed at Long Beach over the apparent solidity of the new pier, and there was reason to believe it would stand the test of the high sea, but two of the cement piers have been dislodged and 17 more are damaged. This was caused by the landing float, which broke away and pounded against the piers until they were loosened. Steel girdles in the piers were so badly bent they will have to be replaced. The greatest damage was done at the unfinished end of the pier, where it is not yet finally stayed by proper permanent supports, but there also was grave apprehension today for that section nearest the shore.—San Bernardino County Sun, September 8, 1904
Pier Is Wrecked At Ocean Park
Ocean Park, March 13.—“This storm has already cost our city thousands of dollars and there is no telling where it will end,” said Dana Burks, mayor of Ocean Park, in an interview this evening.
For a little more than twenty-four hours Ocean Park has been in the throes of one of the worst and most destructive storms of recent years. Rain has fallen steadily, accompanied at times by a high wind that carried all before it.
The sea has pounded three hundred feet of the Pier avenue wharf to splinters and more than one hundred feet of the Santa Monica pier has fallen victim to its fury. Hundreds of dollars worth of gaudy carnival decorations have been ruined and this afternoon hang limply in the breeze as if a mockery to the carnival promoters who are as gloomy as the streets are desolate. Not one dime has been paid into the box office by 6 o’clock, although the “grand opening” was billed for yesterday. Inside the vast enclosure dozens of men and women stood about under the folds of leaky tents discussing the probabilities of a let-up in the storm and those merchants who had stocked up in anticipation of a carnival rush were discouraged at the outlook.
At Venice no apparent damage has resulted, although the uncompleted wharf has at times been almost hidden from view by mighty waves which wash up on the beach. —Los Angeles Herald, March 13, 1905
The pleasure pier at Brighton, a mile east of San Pedro, is partially gone. The pier at Terminal Island is threatened. —Los Angeles Herald, March 13, 1905
Santa Barbara’s Beautiful Boulevard Destroyed
Santa Barbara, March 13.—Not for twenty-seven years has this section of Southern California experienced such a disastrous storm...Late Saturday night a strong southeast wind set in, which toward morning developed to proportions almost equal to a gale, demolishing every craft in the harbor and threatening Stearns’ Wharf. The most serious damage done was the washing away of the 1500 feet of the newly constructed ocean boulevard, only completed by the city two weeks ago.
At Pismo Beach half the wharf was washed away, and all the houses for summer campers on the sand were demolished by waves. —San Francisco Chronicle, March 14, 1905
Electric Pier At Santa Cruz Damaged
Santa Cruz, March 13.—The storm of yesterday and last evening was a surprise to all. The wind for twenty-four hours blew a perfect gale from the south. It whipped and churned the waters of Monterey bay until they entered into league for the destruction to be done. Nearly all the damage was confined to the waterfront where the tide and the wind were the highest. The new electric pier at the beach was considerably damaged at the end. The damage will soon be repaired, as it has been the intention of the Casino management to strengthen the pier and extend it 150 feet.
Port Rogers suffers in the destruction of the new wharf for a distance of 500 feet. —San Francisco Chronicle, March 14, 1905
STORM
Ships Wrecked, Piers Swept Away and Bridges Torn Down
Modern Venice’s Shore Attractions Are Beaten Down —
Modern Venice’s Shore Attractions Are Beaten Down —
The largest losses in the immediate vicinity of Los Angeles were as follows:
* Wreck of pier and pavilions, Venice of America = $50,000
* Damage to Ocean Park, Santa Monica and Port Los Angeles piers = $50,000
* Partial destruction of Playa del Rey pier = $15,000
* Santa Fe bridge and railroad losses = $20,000
* Total loss of Seventh Street bridge = $12,000
* Loss of boats wrecked at Long Beach = $10,500
* Damage to government breakwater at San Pedro = $12,000
* Damage to wireless station and other property = $6,850
* Damage to $100,000 pleasure pier, Long Beach = $5,000
* Weakening of Ninth Street bridge = $5,000
* Boyle Heights Church and Home Telephone Co. (lightning and water) = $3,500
* Other losses by lightning = 1,500
* Cottage at Santa Monica washed into gulch = $500.
TOTAL = $191,450
Los Angeles as a big city, stretching from the mountains to the sea, experienced the worst storm in its history yesterday [Monday] and Sunday. Other big storms have visited Los
Angeles in the memory of white inhabitants, but they found no such opportunity to do damage in Los Angeles. The property was not here to be damaged...
The demolition of the stupendous structures being reared at Venice of America was perhaps the greatest single property loss. The furious sea all but wiped out the ocean side of this new pleasure resort on the coast, and in this one stroke swept away $50,000 worth of labor and material.
Heavy Damage to Ocean Piers
The defenselessness of the pleasure piers along the coast, which represent a total investment of more than $250,000, was shown by this storm. Not one escaped serious damage. There are but shattered fragments of the piers that have accommodated thousands in the bay that stretches from Santa Monica to Redondo... —Los Angeles Examiner, March 14, 1905
New Long Beach Pier Gives Way At Last
The tempest is apparently over. At midnight all the stars were out and the clearing-off seemed final...Beaten to a fury by the tremendous southeasterly gale, the waves got in the worst of their work at an early hour yesterday morning.
Part of the new Long Beach pier, supposed to be impregnable, was carried away, the loss falling upon the city to the tune of several thousand dollars.
Much damage was done to the new government breakwater at San Pedro. Abbott Kinney’s new “Venice” is hit fully $50,000. — Los Angeles Times, March 14, 1905
Ocean Park Property Loss $200,000
Wharf is Torn From its Foundations and Scattered on the Beach
Ocean Park, March 13.—Property damaged to the extent of $200,000 or more, with the beach for miles strewn with wreckage, is the result of the storm at Ocean Park, Santa Monica, and vicinity.
At Ocean Park the long wharf at the foot of Pier avenue was almost demolished. One thousand feet of the structure was torn from its foundation and washed away by the sea. President A. R. Fraser of the Ocean Park Improvement Company says the structure will not be repaired. The improvement company, he says, has expended $12,000 within the last three years on the wharf. The citizens of Ocean Park may build a new wharf, but it will not be at the foot of Pier Avenue, according to present reports.
At Santa Monica, the north beach pier is a complete wreck. It will have to be entirely rebuilt.
The wharf at Playa del Rey sustained heavy damage, and will require several thousand dollars to repair the loss. The boardwalk at Playa del Rey is reduced to splinters. —Los Angeles Herald, March 14, 1905
The Hollister avenue pier suffered more than was at first thought and it is now estimated that one thousand dollars at least will have to be expended in making necessary repairs. —Los Angeles Herald, March 15, 1905
Four Sections Of Balboa Wharf Washed Out
The stormiest night of the winter was last night... Down along the coast the seas ran like fury. As far as one could see from Newport toward Catalina Island were breakers, the ocean being a mass of tumbling foam. Four sections of the Balboa wharf were washed out. During the storm the wharf swayed at the mercy of the waters and its complete destruction was looked for.
A number of piles were washed from beneath the Southern Pacific wharf at Newport Beach.—Santa Ana Register, March 5, 1907
Ocean’s teeth In Action
Long Beach, July 23.—Old ocean for the past three days has been in a ferocious mood and tonight reached a height of six feet and seven inches. Sunday night it rose over the sands to Seaside Park, washed away 2000 feet of boardwalk and thirty feet of the steps leading up to Seaside Park Pier... — Los Angeles Times, July 24, 1907
The high tides of the past few days did considerable injury to all of the piers along the strand. From the pleasure pier at the foot of Santa Fe Avenue more than twenty piles were washed, while three were wrenched out of the Manhattan structure, and one from Peck’s pier at North Manhattan. —Los Angeles Times, November 17, 1907
Havoc Wrought By Wind-Lashed Sea
Los Angeles, Feb. 12—Two thousand dollars of damage are reported as a result of the storm that raged along the coast last night. Three piers were wrecked, four launches and nineteen rowboats were lost, and havoc was wrought in the beach towns...
Despite the efforts of a large crew of men who worked all night, the breakwater landing at Venice was washed away.
The pier at Del Rey was totally destroyed.
Seventy-five feet of the new concrete pier on Colorado street at Santa Monica was torn out, causing a loss of six thousand dollars. —Santa Ana Register, February 12, 1909
Storm Is Most Severe In Years
Santa Monica, Feb. 12—The heavy southwest gale that broke on the coast last evening and continued throughout the night and all day today wrought considerable damage along the waterfront.
At the new municipal pier at Colorado avenue, Santa Monica, the false work was carried away and the piledriver and engine, at the end, were sent to the bottom of the ocean.
Several piles were washed out at Bristol Pier at Hollister as were several at the Horseshoe pier at Ocean Park...
The Central street pier at Venice is standing, but so many piles have been torn out from the structure that it is doubtful whether it will stand until evening.
The heavy swells carried out a portion of the wrecked Playa del Rey pier, leaving the remainder so twisted and torn that it will have to be taken apart if it survives the storm.
Old residents describe the condition as the most severe in years. —Los Angeles Herald, February 13, 1909
Path of Storm Ruin-Marked
Sections were clipped from the ocean end of the pleasure pier at Manhattan. A number of piles were washed from the sewer outfall pier at Hyperion, and the 300 feet of the Playa Del Rey pier that escaped the last series of ground swells was chopped into a shapeless mass of wreckage and deposited along the shore for a distance of two miles. This portion of the pier stood at sea with no shore end connections and its stability had been such for some time that the first heavy tide was expected to carry it away.
At Venice the damage was only nominal. The Center Street pier stood the strain without losing any of its piles...
The Hollister avenue pier of Santa Monica escaped with the loss of six piles from different sections of the structure....
Santa Monica’s new municipal pier of reinforced concrete stood the storm without a tremble, although several hundred feet of the frame falsework was washed away. With this temporary construction was carried away the engine and pile driver, which are resting on the bed of the ocean in thirty feet of water...the completed portion of the pier is as solid today as it was before the storm. —Los Angeles Times, February 13, 1909
Pier Washed Away, Wind Accompanying High Tide
Much Damage Done at Newport Beach
Santa Ana, Feb. 22.— The highest tide for the last eighteen years was recorded yesterday at Newport Beach. There was a strong wind, several piles were washed out of the Southern Pacific wharf, and the pleasure pier owned by the Townsend-Dayman company was demolished entirely. —Los Angeles Herald, February 23, 1909Much Damage Done at Newport Beach
Tidal Wave Felt At Crescent Bay
Ocean Park, Sept. 15,—Several hundred persons lolling on the beach at 11:15 o’clock this morning received rude and damp shocks when three immense waves dashed clear to the cement walk...
The miniature tidal wave resulted from the heavy sea that was running all day indicative of a severe storm at sea. Heavy ground swells and immense billows tossed about the bay.
Anglers on the new concrete pier at Santa Monica say when the immense waves struck that wharf the vibration was considerable, the rollers dashing over the deck and drenching many fishermen. —Los Angeles Herald, September 6, 1909
High Seas Sweep Long Beach Pier And Pike
Big Wharf and Roller Coaster Closed
Big Wharf and Roller Coaster Closed
Long Beach, July 3.—Huge ground swells, more than twenty-five feet high, last night and today so badly damaged the pleasure pier that it was closed this afternoon, and tomorrow, when the Fourth of July crowd is here, one of the points of attraction will be barred to the throngs... The police cleared the outer end of the pier at noon when fifty of the already damaged piles were washed away. The waves then flooded the lower deck and further damage was expected. The pier was constructed at a cost of $100,000 and recently bonds in the amount of $75,000 were voted by the city for the repair of the structure, but they have not been sold. The present storm has made extensive repairs necessary and the $75,000 may not be sufficient to cover the work. —Los Angeles Herald, July 4, 1910
Long Beach Tides Wrecking Havoc
Damage to Big Pier Estimated at Nearly $10,000
The high tides and far reaching sweep of the waves put the sandy beach under water, immersed the Pike, and finally wrecked the pier and a half dozen seaside cottages during the two days past...During the past few days the sea had surpassed all former wildness, as reported by old time inhabitants...The permanent repair of the pier, with the $75,000 recently voted, is awaited with eagerness by all the townspeople... For a mile and a half the beach has been cut back 100 feet. —Los Angeles Herald, July 6, 1910Damage to Big Pier Estimated at Nearly $10,000
High Tide Wrecks Piers
Santa Monica, Feb. 2.—The highest tides of the season wrought thousands of dollars damage today around Santa Monica Bay. At El Segundo, 100 feet of the new Rockefeller oil pier was broken off, carrying with it expensive pile drivers and other construction machinery, all of which now lies in deep water.
Floating piles, wretched from the new wooden pier at Venice, threatened to demolish the entire structure. Fifty feet of the pier already has been washed away at Manhattan, the Center Street pleasure pier also is a wreck...
The absence of a west wind later today gave rise to the hope that there would be no further damage. —Oakland Tribune, February 2, 1912
Great Gales In The North
Santa Cruz (Cal.) Nov. 26.—A Gibelli, a fisherman, who rescued twenty-two persons from the steamship Rio Janeiro, which sank in the Golden Gate at San Francisco in 1902, nearly lost his life today. The heaviest surf in years rolled into the bay and a 200-foot section of the Hihn Company’s wharf at Capitola, four miles from here, was washed away, leaving Gibelli marooned at the outer end. Four hours later rescuers succeeded in reaching him with a rope and life preserver. —Los Angeles Times, November 27, 1913
Unprecedented High Water At Beaches
Hermosa Beach, Dec. 12.—Although there was no apparent storm, the largest swells and highest breakers ever seen here rolled in yesterday and threatened to damage the new concrete pier. The heavy sea broke off all of the four wooden pilings of the dolphin of the pier, which was formed of four pilings bound together. These pilings were washed through the concrete pilings of the pier and in dashing against them bent one of the great concrete pilings and cracked the concrete on that and two others. The dolphin was later dragged from the ocean onto the sand by City Engineer Gus Atchley and others to prevent it from doing other damage. —Santa Ana Register, December 12, 1913
Waves Damage Property — Water Lashed by Unseen Force While Sun Shines — Pleasure Pier on Southern Coast is Total Wreck
Los Angeles, Dec. 12.—Lashed to fury by some unknown force, huge waves wrought damage all along the ocean shore last night and today. Pleasure piers at the seaside resorts and the oil wharves at El Segundo were battered, and piles were uprooted and dashed upon the strand, although no wind was blowing.
In some cases the waves were so high that piers were submerged...
At Venice 75 feet of an unfinished concrete pier was washed out. At Hermosa the tugboat Dolphin was torn from her moorings and thrown against a wharf, which sustained serious damage.
Observers believed that the phenomenon was due to some submarine disturbance. The skies were sunny and the ocean appeared placid beyond the surf line. Inside of that the waters were in furious agitation. —Oakland Tribune, December 12, 1913
Tides Wreck Resorts From Santa Barbara Down to Long Beach
$200,000 Damage Estimated and Waves Are Rolling Twenty Feet High Today
$200,000 Damage Estimated and Waves Are Rolling Twenty Feet High Today
Los Angeles, Dec. 27.— While 20,000 persons are gathered at the beach resorts to watch the thrilling sea spectacle, the highest tide of the season is pounding at bulkheads, piers and buildings along the south coast today... The entire southern coast from Santa Barbara to San Diego is wave swept by a tide officially scheduled in the government tide book at 7 feet 2 inches, but which in reality is running at least nine feet... Throughout the night while the volunteer corps worked, soaked and chilled, the ocean appeared in its most pitiless aspect. The mighty breakers, 20 feet high, tore inshore one after another.
The 4,000-foot pier of the Standard Oil company at El Segundo, costing $300,000, was closed today. One hundred feet of the Manhattan Beach pier was torn out. The new municipal concrete pier at Hermosa Beach is standing the seas assault well. —San Francisco Call and Post, December 27, 1913
Highest Tides Come Without Much Wind
Los Angeles, Dec. 27.—Although the highest tides of the year swept the beaches near Los Angeles today, absence of wind or ground swell prevented a repetition of the heavy damage caused by high seas yesterday...
At Venice, where yesterday’s damage aggregated $150,000, hundreds of persons watched the waves that were dashing 50 feet over the remaining portions of the bulkheads...
Santa Monica and Ocean Park were reported safe, although waves were dashing over the Nat Goodwin pier at Ocean Park...
The small municipal wharf at Manhattan Beach was washed away. It was worth $1000.
No harm was done at Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach. The Pacific Light and Power Company’s pier at Playa Del Rey was being swept by heavy seas but appeared to be holding the ground. —The Portland Oregon Daily, December 27, 1913
Damage At Venice — Kinney Pier Wrecked
Venice, Jan. 1.—Partially demolishing the Kinney breakwater pier and tearing more holes in the Ocean Front bulkheads, huge ground swells today assaulted the beach and its structures, doing more damage than at any time during the last seven years. The damage today is estimated at $100,000.
The gigantic waves, causing breakers twelve feet high, were aided by a high tide in the onslaughts. A large crowed, prevented from going out on to the Kinney pier farther than the aquarium, watched fascinated by the huge swells and combers.
It is expected that that part of the Kinney pier over the breakwater will be town out before morning. Almost every pile is loosened, and the deck has been torn loose from the pilings and is leaning over the water, having been pushed ten feet shoreward by the force of the waves. The north end of the pier has collapsed. The boat landing and stairway went out early today. A large section of the deck of the main pier has caved in. It is estimated that the whole pier west of the auditorium will have to be rebuilt at a cost of $75,000. —Los Angeles Times, January 2, 1914
Heavy Storms On Ocean Wreck Piers And Houses At Pacific Coast Ports
Los Angeles, Jan 30—Heavy seas riding in on an unusually high tide, swept away half of the pleasure pier at Venice yesterday. Several concessions, including a museum and a store went with it down into the surf smother and officials and townsmen worked hard emptying other pier establishments of their contents in anticipation of further damage. Pilings under the large restaurant and auditorium were torn out by the breakers shortly after 9 o’clock and the floating timbers were battering at the under-pinning of sections still intact with every surge of the sea.
The fifty mile gale which swept the southern coast yesterday had dwindled to a twenty-four mile breeze today but huge breakers still swept the strands of every beach resort between Santa Monica and Long Beach. —Bakersfield Californian, January 30, 1915
Raging Surf Batters South Beach Towns — Piers Smashed by Pounding Waves
Old man Neptune splashed the coastline of pleasure beaches in the vicinity of Los Angeles early yesterday morning, strewing desolation and causing damage estimated at from $250,000 to $500,000.
He stirred up a storm that was more general in its effect and more devastating than any that have eaten into the coast line in many years. From Santa Monica Bay on the north to Long Beach on the south as far as Balboa, the storm hammered out scars and decorated the beach with wreckage...
The low barometric pressure that has shown along the coast for the last few days, the stiff gale and drenching rain, followed by the peeping of an early sun through ominous clouds, gave an atmospheric setting to the lashing of the strand which heightened as the combers pounded shoreward with irresistible force.
The gale reached its height as the tide rose abnormally early yesterday morning. The seven-foot tide played havoc without discrimination in Santa Monica Bay, where all the piers are of the same elevation, and at other beaches the effect was quite as destroying.
Crowd held Back—At Venice, where the greater crowds watched the waves at play, the police lined off forbidden spaces where the water kept racing inward or where piers and seawalls shook under the buffeting of the waves.
On the Kinney Pier, where the Venice police and firemen, and a host of concessionaires and employees were all night, the scene was pandemonium. The cries of animals in the ?????drome mingled with the splintering crash of timers, and as each c??? excited beasts was rolled out to ??? over the tottering pier a???? crowds were kept away from danger by the police...
Estimates of the storm damage were variously reckoned last night as follows: Venice, $150,000; Long Beach, $75,000; Redondo Beach, $75,000; Santa Monica and northern part of bay, $50,000; Newport, Balboa and other beaches, $25,000.
From the point where the long wharf pokes its final piling out into the sea around the curving bay to Redondo Beach the damage was heavy. The pleasure piers at Ocean Park and Santa Monica escaped damage, while chunks of the long wharf were carried away under the steady pounding of the breakers, and the center swayed as though any minute it would be doubled back and hurled against the shore.
The big Kinney pier at the foot of Windward Avenue suffered heavily. The free pier built beyond the breakwater was lifted by the heavy seas at high tide and flung back with tremendous force. The fishbait emporium and the fish market were splintered, and when the heavy timbers raced backward across the breakwater they caught the main pier and severed it, leaving one section standing far out in the surf.
Sea Elephants Freed—The pier broke when the seven-foot tide and heavy seas lifted it. When it broke it liberated a herd of sea elephants, dropping their big tank with a splash into the roaring water. This splash was followed by a flopping around and a general melee in which the sea elephants scattered and disappeared. They were the captive remnants of a tribe of mammals now almost extinct. One young cub remained in the exhibit on the pier to keep company with a herd of ostriches that consumed pebbles and rusty nails with a nonchalance that indicated they had no fear of the storm...
The doubling up of the outer pier threw a scare into the concessionaires, but there was little need for it, as the main pier withstood the onslaughts of the waves.
Abbot Kinney, viewing the damage, said he could piece the severed pier together for $6000, but his loss is believed to be nearer $20,000, while the loss to concessions is estimated at about $40,000... —Los Angeles Times, January 31, 1915
High Gale Tears Along The Beach
Santa Monica, Feb. 2—Early this morning a gale from the west visited this bay and for a time it looked as if the sea was going to do more damage than it did last week. Huge mountains of water quickly began racing for the shore and if the tide had not been so low there might have been considerable damage done...
This afternoon the continued blast of wind, with intervals of rainy squalls, nearly completely wrecked that portion of the long wharf which is sagging. The workmen were busy at a break nearer shore and had not worked near the big sag, and while they toiled repairing one part of the structure, the other part was being town away by the big breakers. If it were not for the steel rails and the bridge construction,, that part of the wharf which is so dangerously sagging, would long ago have been completely wrecked by the high water. —Los Angeles Times, February 3, 1915
Pier at Venice Damaged
Venice, Cal., April 3.—Nearly 200 feet of the Maier pier here and 60 feet of the Playa Del Rey pier were carried out by the spring high tide early today. A pile driver, engine, machinery and other paraphernalia went into the ocean with the collapse of the Maier pier section. —Portland Oregon Daily Journal, April 3, 1915
Fierce Gale Damages Piers Of South Coast
Newport Beach, March 23.—In one of the strongest gales of the season, a portion of the Balboa wharf was carried away and two fishing launches from Newport broke away from their moorings and were smashed up on the beach at Balboa early this morning.
The wind which came up about 11 o’clock last evening, blew at first from the southwest, after a short time veering to the west from whence it has continued to blow with unabated velocity...
A portion of the end of the Balboa wharf was carried away by the miscreant “Toad,” which, in the course of her wanderings, crashed into the storm-wrecked pilings that supported the extreme end of the pier...
Should the wind hold its present velocity and be backed by the strong current, it is certain that damage will be sustained to the oceanfront at Newport. —Santa Ana Register, March 23, 1916
Sea Defied In Fight For Pier
The forty-eight hour siege which gripped the Pacific the length of the West Coast gave time for a hasty summary of damage yesterday.
A check revealed the complete loss of the $100,000 pleasure pier at Pismo Beach, the endangering of the La Monica and Santa Monica municipal piers, the probable loss of the wharf at San Luis Obispo... and minor damage the length of the Southern Coast.
The La Monica ballroom is standing this morning, engineers last night predicted that it will be saved from the sea. The pier upon which it stands survived the heavy noon tide yesterday, although broken pilings battered against its remaining supports and the ballroom floor swayed against the onslaught. The end of the pier on which the ballroom stands, has sagged several feet, it was said. A heavy ground swell and the pounding of loose timber and concrete during the high tide at midnight was predicted as the pier’s most severe test. Should the pier collapse, Fire Chief Jackson and City Commissioner Morton expressed belief that the Santa Monica municipal pier, immediately adjoin it, will suffer likewise, in which event the damage there will mount to $1,000,000 or more.
Floor Sagging—After salvaging many of the expensive furnishings of the ballroom, largest on the West Coast, officials cleared the structure of workmen yesterday when the floor began sagging. Thousands of dollars in equipment still remain in the building.
The damage to the pleasure pier is attributed by Ed B. Conliss, president of the La Monica Ballroom Company, to the fact that the municipal boat landing at the end of the concrete pier was washed out and began battering the piling of the pleasure pier. Timber after timber was hammered lose and in turn was carried by the heavy seas against standing supports. Those not broken are considerably strained.
In addition to the $300,000 ballroom, the pier holds the whirlwind dipper, bowling alleys, restaurants and other pleasure concessions, with an aggregate value of $450,000 more.
There was some difficulty from floating piling at Crystal Pier, but the pier itself was secure. At Venice police reported the pier there safe because of the rock breakwater. Smaller piers along the shore to the south were damaged or completely washed away. —Los Angeles Times, February 4, 1926
Ventura, Feb. 13.—Battered by breakers, a portion of the Ventura Wharf and Warehouse company’s pier collapsed and fell into the sea today. George Procter, 59, company bookkeeper, was drowned. Damage estimated at $50,000 was caused by the breakers. Debris from the crumbled pier was scattered for a mile along the coast. Procter’s body was sought by coast guards among the broken pilings. Giant breakers have been beating against the pier for days, endangering its safety. —Santa Ana Register, February 13, 1926
Fury Of Elements At End
San Francisco, Feb. 13.—The fury of the elements has abated. The storm which raked the California coast from end to end, leaving death and destruction in its wake, today was reported by the Weather Bureau at and end...
During Friday night and Saturday morning devastation along the Pacific Coast due to high winds, flood and tidal waves reached its height.
Preparations were being made tonight to dynamite the hull of the steamer Yosemite which Friday was thrown against the Olympic Company’s pipe line pier at the Cliff House tearing away fifty feet of the pier supporting it... —Los Angeles Times, February 14, 1926
Coast Ravaged By Storm
...Ventura was hard hit by the raging sea. Besides the loss of the Union Oil pier with one fatality...
The thirty-foot excursion boat Omeco broke her moorings at the Santa Monica Municipal Pier and knocked out twelve pilings from beneath the pier...The concrete floor of the Municipal Pier sagged to such an extent that police ordered it cleared...
The fishing barges Venice, Three Brothers, and Tourist went ashore and broke up on the beach between Santa Monica and Ocean Park...
Ocean Park Pier Damaged—Pilings, loosened from an old pier at Ocean Park, crashed against the Ocean Park pier, and for a time threatened its destruction. It is believed, however, that the pier is safe.
The Edison Pier, near Hermosa Beach, saw swamped under heavy breakers all día, but remained undamaged.
The fishing barge William Bowden, 250 feet long and moored about a mile and a half from shore at Redondo Beach, snapped its four anchors early in the morning and was washed up on shore near the municipal pier... Three smaller boats were wrecked on the shore near the Redondo pier. They were the Redondo, owned by I. D. Binns; the Gertrude, owned by Jess Skeen, and the Pals, also owned by Skeen.
Two hundred feet of the Del Mar pier was carried away by high tides...
Three piers at Summerland and the approach to the Stearns Wharf at Santa Barbara were wrecked. The three Summerland piers, each supporting from six to twenty oil derricks, crumbled in pieces like kindling wood. The main wharf at Santa Barbara was damaged but can be repaired at small cost.
The government breakwater which extends from the lighthouse out to deep ocean, is safe guarding the three wharves at Port San Luis, according to advice received from San Luis Obispo. Hid tides yesterday, however, tore away large sections of the breakwater between Avila and Port San Luis, as well as damaging the railroad to such an extent that trains will not run for at least ten days. —Los Angeles Times, February 14, 1926
Storm Over California Coast Leaves In Its Wake Damage —
Several Amusement Piers Are Facing Destruction From Hammering Surf
Several Amusement Piers Are Facing Destruction From Hammering Surf
San Francisco, Feb. 13.—After having goaded the seas along more than a thousand miles of coast line to an orgy of destruction, a storm of record size and force was moving swiftly inland. A wake of shattered beach structures from San Francisco to San Diego, three dead and at least two sturdy ships, hopelessly battered and broken, were left as mementos of the night of destruction.
Santa Monica Pier Damaged—Wind and surf kept all craft harbor-bound playing havoc with the light shipping off shore... The concrete floor of the municipal pier at Santa Monica had sagged to such an extent today that police ordered all spectators and workmen to leave the structure...
Six hundred feet of Ventura’s shipping wharf was carried away today after resisting a long pounding by the surf. —San Bernardino County Sun, February 14, 1926
Storm Damage Being Repaired
Wreckage was piled high along the shore at Ventura, Plans already were being launched for the construction of a new pier to replace the Ventura pier that crashed Saturday.
The Pierpoint Pier, an eight-foot walk constructed in a real estate subdivision south of Ventura and extending nearly a mile into the ocean, collapsed during the height of the storm. —Los Angeles Times, February 15, 1926
Storm Lashes Coast Shipping— Piers Buffeted
The lives of forty deep-sea fishermen were endangered for a few hours, pierheads were buffeted and loosened along the oceanfront and small craft hastened to safe anchorage while a forty-mile gale yesterday lashed the coastline and menaced harbor shipping.
The gale, kicking up huge waves, held the forty fishermen at sea when they were unable to make a landing at Santa Monica municipal pier. Six motor launches bearing the sportsmen, looking for a place to land, cruised twenty miles north of Santa Monica to Malibu Cove, where a landing was effected. The fishermen were returned to anta Monica by automobiles...
The storm assumed almost hurricane proportions at Redondo Beach and undermined a boat landing on the outer section of the Monstad Pier. Considerable damage was believed done to the new municipal pier. —Los Angeles Times, May 8, 1930
Coast Strewn With Wreckage
The stark outlines of three wrecked fishing barges, flotsam strewing a battered coast line and the remnants of some shattered piers last night told a mute but graphic story of the fierce nor’-wester which Wednesday night and yesterday sent thunderous seas booming against the sea walls and shores of Southern California, damaging boats and shore properties to the extent of more than $100,000, and imperiling scores of lives.
Ghosts of the days of sail stalked the waters of Hermosa Beach, Redondo and White Point, where stout barges that once plied the sea lands under canvas clouds had given up unequal struggles against crashing seas during the twenty-hour blow, dragging their anchors and ending their days by piling up on rocky shores.
Bits of wreckage of almost a score of smaller craft, ranging in size from large live-bait boats to tiny power launches and skiffs, strewed the beaches throughout the area that felt the fury of the nor’wester, from Laguna Beach to Malibu...
Along the coast line which bore the brunt of the storm’s fury piers and beach residences showed splintered pilings rearing grotesquely out of the water, grown comparatively calm after spending of the gale’s force...
A final check disclosed the probable total loss of the fishing barges Melrose, which broke up at White Point; the steel-hulled Gracia, aground at Rocky Point near Redondo, and the Thomas P. Emigh, washed ashore at Hermosa Beach.
The Georgina, which drifted part way to shore off Hermosa Beach was towed back to sea and secured yesterday by the Red Stack tug Restless. Also returned to her moorings off Belmont Pier, Long Beach, was the barge Rainbow, which dragged her anchors four miles and came perilously near crashing at Sunset Beach with a crew of five, who refused to desert her.
“Bill’s Barge” also went voyaging off Huntington Beach until her hooks again took hold, as did a little barge off Laguna Beach. —Los Angeles Times, April 22, 1932
Death And Ruin In Gale’s Wake — Pier Again Damaged
A naval lighter crashed into Cabrillo Pleasure Pier, which was being repaired from damage incurred a month ago, and the pier again was demolished at that point. The eight-meter racing sloop Marin also crashed into the pier at the same point and fully a dozen boats were piled up alongside the pier. Among them were the Catalina Flier, a sixty-foot launch, and the forty-foot pleasure fishing boat, King B...—Los Angeles Times, January 12, 1933
Ocean, Bestirred By Mystery Force, Breaks Lifelines
Los Angeles, Aug. 21.—The phenomenon of an angry sea, disturbed by some unknown force, puzzled weather observers today. Unprecedented rip-tides, heavy ground swells and battering breakers that damaged beach property and repelled bathers accompanied the mysterious disturbance in a becalmed air...
A section of the Venice pier collapsed. Pilings were ripped away at a popular public pier at Playa Del Rey. Lifeguards were posted at Playa Del Rey to keep people off the pier. The structure was said to be greatly weakened by the pounding waves.—Berkeley Daily Gazette, August 21, 1934
Gigantic Breakers Batter Coastline
Long Beach, Sept. 6—AP—Whipped into a roaring frenzy by some strange disturbance, the cause of which baffled scientists, the Pacific Ocean pumped huge swells against the Southern California coast today, wiping out a $100,000 pier here...Breaking more than 1000 feet offshore, the gigantic swells, estimated to be 30 feet high, buffeted the Pine Avenue pier here until most of it collapsed and was tossed like splintered toothpicks upon the beach. Sections of the beach covered with debris resembled the wake of a Mid-West tornado....The adjacent Rainbow Pier, built several years ago at a cost of a hundred thousand dollars and stretching out into the ocean like a giant horse shoe, trembled under the avalanche of water, Thus far it has stood its ground but officials expressed fear that it, too, might be swept away and consequently all were barred from it. —Oakland Tribune, September 6, 1934
One Is Known Dead As Waves Pound Resorts
Long Beach, Calif. Sept 6.—AP—The body of an unidentified man was taken from the surf today near where the Pine Avenue Pier collapsed yesterday. The body had a fresh cut on the forehead and authorities believed the man may have plunged into the pounding waves and been knocked unconscious when the pier toppled into the water...Considerable anxiety still was felt for the two remaining pier in Long Beach, the Circular Rainbow and the Silver Spray Amusement Pier. The Pine Avenue Pier collapsed yesterday and fell into the water. With it went a building at the end of the pier and several concessions. The loss was estimated at $100,000. —Modesto Bee, September 6, 1934
Raging Seas Destroy Pier
Wreckage from the Pine Avenue Pier endangered the Silver Spray Amusement Pier and the famous Rainbow Pier at Long Beach, and Director of Public Safety Hoagland put fifty men to work snagging great timbers as the tide receded, to prevent them causing damage when the next high tide comes in at 8 p.m. tonight.
The Silver Spray Pier at Long Beach was damaged to some extent, but not seriously... Raging breakers foamed high over the new Rainbow Pier on the Long Beach water front which encloses a bather’s lagoon and protects the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium, which extends out over the ocean.
The enormous waves, pouring over the road which encircles the Rainbow Pier, changed the lagoon into a cauldron of swirling water and presented a spectacular scene. A few of the huge slabs of granite that make up the rock fill, which provides a foundation for the pier, were loosened by the blasting of the waves, but water-front engineers said there was little danger of the sea doing any real destructive damage to the pier. —Los Angeles Times, September 6, 1934
Tides Bring New Peril — Pilings Smashed From Pier
Recurrence of giant waves pounding with relentless fury against the Southern California beach area yesterday added to the mounting toil of damage caused during the past forty-eight hours...Ripping pier pilings from their moorings, the sea during the day shot them landward as weapons of damage.
A forty-foot hole was pounded through the rock-filled Rainbow Pier at Long Beach, while more than one hundred and fifty feet of understructure was loosened and damaged by the waves and debris from the Pine Avenue pier, which was completely demolished Wednesday afternoon. But a few twisted pilings remained above the water line yesterday to serve as a reminded of the location of the once sturdy 500-foot pier.—Los Angeles Times, September 7, 1934
At Long Beach a forty-foot hole has been torn in the rock fill of the Rainbow Pier and damage was estimated at $60,000.
The Balboa Pier was saved from being badly damaged when Orlando Brisco, fireman from Newport Beach, risked his life to swim out and steer a heavy drifting timber away from the pier and toward shore, where eleven other foremen helped him land it. —Los Angeles Times, September 8, 1934
Giant Waves At Ventura Wreck Part Of Wharf
Ventura, Dec. 19.—(UP) Giant combers brought damage along the waterfront today, tearing out 200 feet of the pier, wrecking a large launch, flooding beach homes and carrying out to sea two men who were rescued only after a heroic battle. The outer end of the Ventura pier crashed under the terrific pounding and strewed the beach with wreckage. —Santa Cruz Evening News, December 19, 1935
Heavy Seas Pound Coast
San Diego, Dec. 28—While San Diegans are awaiting predicted rains, towering waves are pounding the coast at Mission Beach and La Jolla and are threatening to lash over the top of Crystal Pier, Mission Beach pleasure resort... At Mission Beach, police detailed to watch for a recurrence of the high waves which sent debris up into the streets last week, said that the waves were pounding fiercely at pilings of the Crystal Pier.—Oakland Tribune, December 29, 1935
Wreckage Litters Southern California Coast
Los Angeles, Dec. 13. (A.P.)—The southern California coastline was littered with wreckage today after receiving a pounding from heavy ground swells that ripped out piers and undermined homes.
Huge waves ripped out the 700-foot Ventura completely and demolished the $500-foot pier at Pierpoint Bay. Unofficial estimates of the damage ranged from $50,000 to $100,000. —Bakersfield Californian, December 13, 1937
Debris Litters Beaches For 70 Miles
Los Angeles, Dec. 13. (A.P.)—Debris from the pounding of huge waves littered the Southern California coastline for 70 miles today...Damage in the Ventura area alone was estimated at $70,000. The swells snapped off two thirds of the Ventura commercial pier, used for lumber and oil shipments. The Pierpoint pleasure pier was demolished and three miles of the shore drive was ripped up...
Towering combers left only the stub end of a 500-foot pier used for repair of the Los Angeles City sewage outlet at El Segundo. Fifty feet of an adjoin pier was smashed. The sewer outlet, extending a mile and a half out to sea was not damaged.
Pleasure piers at Venice, ocean Park, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, and Santa Monica were damaged.—Wilmington Daily Press Journal, December 13, 1937
High Waves Hit L.A. District Shoreline
Los Angeles. Jan. 4 —(U.P.)—Unusually high waves battered the Southern California coastline today and washed a clock inland in some places...The pleasure pier at Hermosa Beach was damaged and waves broke over the Crystal Pier at Ocean Park. —Oakland Tribune, January 4, 1939
Storms In State Subsides; Seas Damage South
Tide swollen seas tore at San Diego Beach Communities today, menacing the Mission Bay Bridge and ripping away part of the Del Mar pier. —Modesto Bee, January 6, 1939
One Known Dead, Scores Hurt As Terrific Storm Hits County
A day and night of terrific battering from wind and wave left Orange County wearily counting its dead, injured and property losses today, while preparing for further onslaught of the raging elements.
The coastline where one woman was drowned as a boat capsized in the entrance to Newport Harbor, faced the worst marine experience in its history and bore the brunt of yesterday’s battle between man and nature...
Virtually every pier along the coast was damaged. Two-thirds of the San Clemente Pier was swept away, the pier at Doheny Palisades also was damaged. The “T” at the end of Balboa Pier was gone, half of Newport Beach Pier was missing, and damage was inflicted upon the Huntington Beach and new Seal Beach piers. —Santa Ana Register, September 25, 1939
100 Feared Lost At Sea
Los Angeles, Sept. 25.—Fears that at least 48 persons lost their lives in storm disasters on the Pacific Ocean were expressed today as the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard vessels sought to rescue some of the 100 or more persons aboard boats at sea.
The loss of life came swiftly during last night and today as thousand of persons sought ocean pleasures after nine days of 100-plus temperatures in Southern California. The weekend vacationers, who were aboard fishing and pleasure craft were caught totally unprepared for 60-mile-per-hour gales which swept the Pacific coast off Mexico...
The storm, which followed the heat wave which took from 60 to 80 lives, sent 5.35 inches of rain crashing down on Los Angeles in less than 24 hours.
Twenty-four persons were believed to have drowned when the fishing boat Spray was ripped to pieces and capsized off Point Mugu in Ventura County...—Santa Ana Register, September 25, 1939
Southern Coast Raked By Storm And High Waves
Los Angeles, Sept. 24.—Five persons were dead and at least 26 were missing as heavy rain and high winds swept Southern California tonight after a record week of high temperatures..
Twenty-six persons aboard the pleasure fishing ship Spray were reported missing after it was driven ashore in a heavy squall and capsized at Point Mugu, near Oxnard.
The fishing barge Annie Rose with 25 aboard was marooned off Malibu Pier, but all reported safe. The Minnie Cain came shore at Castle Rock, with seven persons rescued...
A 60-mile wind whipped parts of Santa Catalina Island, 26 miles off shore.
Piers Twisted by Immense Combers—Huge breakers dangerously battered piers at Newport and Huntington Beach.
Today’s maximum temperature in Los Angeles was only 81 degrees. For seven days previously, the thermometer registered more than 100. —The San Bernardino County Sun, September 25, 1939
Reporter Tells of Sea Trip He’ll Never Forget
September heat? Look back at the record and rest your eyes on tables for the week of about September 17, 1939. On the basis of what you find, the current heat spell may be a lull before a chubasco, rolling up from Lower California.
The chubasco may not come this time. But it did on Sept. 24, 1939, in a big way. It took approximately 70 lives in Southern California waters.
We sailed from the harbor in a sport fishing boat, Sunshine II, at 2 a. m. The little Diesel ship rode a glassy sea in a dead calm. Red lights on the Marine Exchange tower at San Pedro warned small craft to remain in the harbor. We set a course for Santa Barbara Island and the sea was so little disturbed in the dead calm that the rudder responded to the slightest turn of the wheel.
Ominous Calm—Sunshine II anchored on the eastward side of the island at 6:45 a. m. and instantly 18 fishermen put out their lines and started catching fish which seemed eager to leave the water for reasons none of us suspected. A tramp purse seiner lay 200 yards away, and so calm was the weather you could hear the voices of the fishermen at breakfast.
It was an ominous calm. The air was humid and sticky. On distant rocks, sea lions started “looking” and moving to higher ground. That was all. All until the first breath of the blow which came suddenly out of the southwest. The blast came low above the surface and set seaweed to slapping the water like hands of mermaids applauding King Neptune.
In an instant, the storm was upon us. It picked Sunshine II up and set her down on a rock. She bumped off and we ran forward to heave up the anchor.
Anchor Gone—The anchor, the only one we had, was gone. That big lift the boat got from the first wave had taken care of that.
Capt. Billy Rice, owner of the ship, had intended to go around on the lee side of the island and anchor the ship again. But without an anchor the only thing he could do was to stand into the terrible, furious sea whose waves were rapidly gaining in height, breadth and strength.
A big wave picked up the purse seiner near us and bounced her onto the top of another wave with a resultant sound like the boom of a cannon.
We tried to run away from it, with 18 people huddled in the little wheelhouse and galley. But it plunged over the stern and as the wind increased in force we were kicked along until we were off Point Dume and then turned and faced it in what proved to be an 18-hour battle for life.
Boat Overturns—A sport fishing boat similar to our own, trying to make a landing with 28 passengers at a small pier at Point Dume, turned over and in the wink of an eye those aboard perished.
The old windjammer Elaine, anchored as a Sportfishing barge, broke her moorings and drifted perilously close to us across Santa Monica Bay and plunged upon the beach in the hissing surf.
Sunshine II was facing 50-foot waves. Capt. Rice would cut her engine and let her angle upon the big ones and drift down into the trough, taking hundreds of them like that.
One mighty wave that looked like death itself riding the ocean came racing up toward us, and as Sunshine II rode toward it, it broke and left what looked like a tempting passage. When we went in, and there was nothing else to do, it surrounded us and with a mighty slap from forward it smashed the wheelhouse and soaked us and the glass cut us about our faces and hands as we held on for life,
Seasick Too—Only two or three people failed to get seasick. If the ship had been gasoline driven we would probably have perished long ago. But the Diesel kept humming, with water rising about it, inch by inch, as the sea wrenched the ship in her mighty struggle to survive. Hour on hour we huddled in misery or stood relief wheel watches, with no one daring to don a life jacket and take a chance of creating hysteria among the others.
Capt. Rice stood there at the wheel and fought for his ship and the lives of passengers. Night came on. We had made about nine miles since turning about. Inch by inch, with the storm still raging against us, we rounded Point Vicente and stood off the Palos Verdes rocks for the remaining hours. At 1 a. m., with a Fort MacArthur light playing on the harbor entrance, Sunshine II was heading into the storm southward of the breakwater light,
Safe at Last—Rice practically took a vote on whether or not to take a chance on turning. And when he turned the sea picked us up and whirled us along like a stick of driftwood.
We shot by the stern of a Navy cruiser and then into the thick of all kinds of shipping that had sought safe anchorage in that area. Soon we were in safe waters off Bethlehem shipyard where the waves were only 10 or 12 feet high.
When Sunshune II moored at First St. Landing at 1 a. m. at San Pedro, 18 exhausted people dragged themselves ashore. —The Waterfront, Edsel Newton, Long Beach Press-Telegram, September 7, 1947
Great Waves Spread Ruin Along Shore
Los Angeles, Jan. 9.—High waves damaged shoreline structures along the southern stretch of Santa Monica bay and near Long Beach and Santa Barbara today...The big waves were the climax of a seven-weeks ocean disturbance for which weather experts were unable to account...At Manhattan Beach, on Santa Monica Bay, a 150-foot section of the municipal pier was destroyed with damage estimated at $10,000...
At El Segundo, damage was reported to the Hyperion Pier...
At Summerland, a pier was smashed... —San Bernardino County Sun, January 10, 1940
Seas Pound Coast
Mountainous seas lashed the Southern California coast today... Crystal Pier at Santa Monica was damaged slightly from the pounding breakers. —Santa Ana Register, January 25, 1940
At Redondo Beach workmen reported they had been able to save wind and sea-battered Horseshoe Pier. However, with new tides due Tuesday and today, the fate of the nearby Monstad Pier was in doubt. —Long Beach Independent, October 21, 1949
High waves pounded the horseshoe pier at Redondo Beach, but city engineer Louis Goff said the structure was not in danger of collapsing. A section of the Monstad Pier, which branches off the main pier, fell into the sea Wednesday. —Portland Maine Sunday Telegram and Press Herald, October 21, 1949
High Tides Pound Entire Southland
With high winds buffeting the already storm-tossed Pacific, high tides gave the Southland coastline the worst buffeting of the year today and spread damage from Redondo Beach to San Diego
Crystal Pier sagged 10 feet and pier manager Fred Neuman said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole pier is lost.” —Long Beach Press Telegram, January 15, 1953
Beaches Take Pounding
Los Angeles (AP)—Southern California beaches were caught their worst pounding of the winter season yesterday as huge breakers riding the highest tide of the year sent ocean water surging far inland in several areas.
Police in San Diego closed Crystal Pier at Pacific Beach as unsafe after one of the 19 cottages built on it spilled into the sea. Only four of the cottages were occupied, and police evacuated their tenants.—Santa Cruz Sentinel. January 16, 1953
There was no further damage to Crystal Pier in San Diego’s Pacific Beach where weakened ...one of 19 tourist cottages slipped to destruction in the surf. —Fresno Bee, January 16, 1953
Seashore Residents Warmed To Brace For 15-Foot Tides
Two fishing piers in San Diego were closed yesterday after four days of pounding surf tore loose planks held down but four and six inch nails...Both the Ocean Beach and Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach were closed to fishermen. —San Bernardino Country Sun, December 9, 1969
Storm Drenches Coast With Rain, Heavy Surf
A heavy pounding by breakers up to 18 feet high brought down an abandoned portion of the Imperial Beach Pier near San Diego...Officials closed the Pismo Beach Pier after heavy seas shoved it toward a southward list and loosened several pilings. The pier normally lists northward.—Orange County Register, January 23, 1981
The landmark Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach, was slowly sinking into the ocean this morning. “It’s falling in... another piece of it is crashing in, I can see pieces of board careening into the ocean. Support beams underneath have given way, and the surf keeps crashing in,” said a KFMB Radio reporter, describing the scene live on the air this morning. The waves tore out the pier’s front pilings and some 30 feet of the structure sagged into the ocean.
The Hermosa Beach Pier and the Redondo Beach breakwater in Los Angeles County, piers at Ocean Beach and the Ventura fishing pier in Ventura County have been closed to the public for fear people might be washed into the ocean by the surf, officials said. “About seven pilings came loose from the Ventura pier,” Oxnard police Sgt. Phillips said. —Santa Cruz Sentinel, January 27, 1983
Storm: The Latest in a series washes over a soggy county
Just north of Los Angeles, the historic Santa Monica Municipal Pier was still standing Friday after one-third of it was undermined by Thursday’s surf. But city spokesman Dave Shirley said a partial inspection of damage to the pier’s 100-foot tip wasn’t promising. “Up to half of the pilings in that area have been washed out,” he said Friday. “I really don’t know what’s keeping it up there.”
The surf also tore way two sections of the Seal Beach Pier in Orange County, undermined about 100 feet of the landmark 725-foot Crystal Pier in San Diego’s Pacific Beach, washed away part of a Standard Oil pier in San Luis Obispo County and wrenched seven pilings loose on Ventura County’s fishing pier.
The churning brown ocean also swept onto the Redondo Beach Pier, doing an estimated $1 million in damages to restaurants and other businesses, said police Lt. Tom Doty. —Orange County Register, January 29, 1983
Storm-whipped surf kicks over oil rig, houses
Battering waves topped off portions of piers in Santa Monica, Imperial Beach, Seal Beach, Pismo Beach, San Clemente and Avila Beach. The Moby Dick restaurant on Santa Barbara’s historic Stearns Wharf was tilting to the sea after pilings were knocked out beneath it said wharf manager Paul Nefstead.
Several hundred feet of the Santa Monica Pier, partially lost in January’s storm, dropped into the ocean Wednesday, leaving only about half of the original 1,600-foot span. Damage was estimated at $3 million, said city spokeswoman Linda Sullivan.
Waves estimated at 16 feet collapsed an 80-foot section of the Seal Beach Pier, 30 miles south of Los Angeles, police said.
San Clemente lost half its pier overnight, and workmen struggled Wednesday to save a restaurant from toppling into the swirling sea. Just south of San Diego, a 100-foot chunk was torn from the Imperial Beach Pier.
Up the coast in San Luis Obispo County, the Avila Beach municipal pier lost 100 feet to the surf and “two sizeable areas of midsection,” county General Services Director Duane Leib said.”—The San Bernardino County Sun, March 3, 1983
Southland Hard Hit By Storm, Waves
In San Luis Obispo County, shore workers got help from the Clean Seas, a special cleanup vessel financed by oil companies, in mopping up about 1,100 gallons of oil that spilled from broken pipeline when the 2,700-foot Union Oil pier collapsed near Avila Beach about ten miles south of San Luis Obispo...
The Union Oil pier was among ten piers destroyed or severely damaged from Cayucos north of San Luis Obispo to Imperial Beach in San Diego County. At some, including the Santa Monica, Paradise Cove and Seal Beach piers, the week’s storms added to destruction from storms in late January and early February.
The Santa Monica Pier was reduced to half its original 1,600-foot length. Mayor Ruth Yannatta Goldway estimated the damage at between $4 million and $9 million but vowed to rebuild it.
In San Clemente, city crews cut away a 40-foot midsection of the municipal pier in hopes of saving two restaurants at the base. The ocean claimed about 100 feet at the seaward end.—Santa Cruz Sentinel, March 3, 1983
Storms that battered California this week also battered its public fishing piers. A DFG survey showed 11 of the state’s 40 public piers are closed and another four are partially closed due to storm-caused damage. Damages are estimated in excess of $7 million.
San Diego and San Luis Obispo counties fared the worst, with three piers shut down in each county. In San Diego County, Imperial Beach, Ocean Beach and Oceanside piers are closed. San Luis Obispo County: Avila Beach, Cayucos and Pismo Beach.
Partially closed piers: Huntington Beach, Santa Monica, Ventura, Capitola (Santa Cruz County).
Said Pismo Beach Public Works Director Charles Johnson: “We spent $40,000 to stabilize it last year. Now it has a 16-inch list and a bunch of hobbles in it and it’s getting worse every day. I’m amazed it’s still there.—Los Angels Times, March 4, 1983
Recovery Could Take Years
In Huntington Beach, holes in the floor of The End Café provide an eerie ocean view. In Venice, the Los Angeles County lifeguard’s central division headquarters rests, orphaned, on pilings 6 feet above the sand. In Marin County, storm-ravaged levees suffered millions of dollars in damage. These are among the most dramatic examples of the devastation wreaked by a series of storms this winter from which it may take the California coast years to recover...
Worst hit was Los Angeles County, with $61.9 million in damage, followed by Orange County with $29.9 million... Also hard hit were Ventura County, $18.7 million, and San Diego County, $14.2 million.
The storm smashed numerous piers on Southern California, many of them laden with shops and amusements. The Santa Monica Pier, part of which is over 65 years old, suffered $8.4 million in damage and lost 400 feet of its length.
City spokesman Linda Sullivan said reconstruction is planned, and that 18 souvenir shops, arcades and other businesses remain open on the undamaged part of the pier. “However, we will not rebuild the pier until all structural and design considerations are taken into account,” she said. “Why rebuild it just to see it floating in the water again?”
Some 40 miles south in Orange County, the 1,860-foot Seal Beach Pier was hammered Jan. 27 and again March 1, when high seas knocked out a 1,200-foot section and stranded a restaurant and boat landing at the pier’s end. City officials have estimated the cost of replacement at up to $4 million.
A few miles to the south, the 69-year-old Huntington Beach Pier lost only 20 feet, but that was enough to leave The End Café dangling partially unsupported with an ocean view through holes in the floor.
Nearly half of the 1,270-foot San Clemente Pier, another 30 miles further south, was lost March 1. Gene Burke, owner of the Pier Tackle shop at the pier’s end, was told by lifeguards that the 373-square-foot building floated for 30 to 45 seconds and then disappeared into the Pacific Ocean.
About 100 feet of the landmark, 725-foot Crystal Pier in San Diego’s Pacific Beach also sank into the ocean.
Douglas Inman, director of Scripps Institution’s Center for Coastal Studies in La Jolla, says the storms are in fact more typical of coastal weather than the deceptively mild period from the late 1940s to the late 1970s, when most coastal development took place. —Santa Cruz Sentinel, March 15, 1983
State’s Beaches Ravaged
The Associated Press—Immortalized in Beach Boy songs and beach blanket movies, California’s 1,000-mile coastline has always been the Golden State’s pride and joy. This year, it’s turned into a major heartache.
A winter-long assault by surf and rain has turned once-sandy beaches into eyesores littered by tons of debris. The ocean has swallowed up picturesque piers that once reached out to the sea. The majestic coastal mountains have tuned into giant highway-strangling mud-piles.
All of California’s 15 coastal counties but one — San Francisco — have reported storm damage. The major damage spots, from north to south:
Point Arena — A municipal pier holding two restaurants and fishing company collapsed during the high seas and heavy winds of Jan. 26. Damage: $460,000.
Cayucos — Heavy damage to Chevron Oil Pier, veteran’s building, and municipal pier...
Pismo Beach Area — Pismo Beach Pier suffers $2 million damage. Avila Beach piers and beaches heavily damaged. Union Oil Pier in Port San Luis completely destroyed...
Santa Barbara — Stearns Wharf lost 20 pilings and a restaurant...
Malibu — Paradise Cove Pier destroyed.
Santa Monica — Santa Monica Pier lost 400 feet, plus pilings and part of parking lot. Rebuilding expected to cost more than $10 million.
Huntington Beach — 1,800-foot Huntington Beach Pier lost 20 feet, damage $700,000.
San Clemente — Half of 1,270-foot San Clemente Pier submerged, damage $1 million.
Oceanside — $3 million damage to Oceanside Pier which may have to be replaced.
San Diego — Surf destroys 300 feet of Crystal Pier, $350, 000 loss.—Santa Rosa Press Democrat, March 28, 1983
Heavy Rains Cause Flooding, Accidents
High winds and waves up to seven feet battered Port Hueneme’s 1,300-foot-long pier, washing away about 200 feet at the pier’s end later Wednesday afternoon and leaving another 200-foot section seriously damaged, said Douglas Breeze, Port Hueneme’s public works chief. At least 20 pilings washed ashore, and Breeze said he suspected that more had been ripped off during the deluge and more would be lost if the stormy weather continues. Officials could not say how much repairs would cost on the pier, which was renovated seven years ago. The segment that washed away Wednesday was part of a T-shaped section added during the renovation, officials said. “This is a devastating experience for the city,” Breeze said. “We have no idea where we are going to get the money to fix things.”
At the Ventura Pier, which has suffered heavy damage from recent storms and high surf, workers on Wednesday began replacing eight of the 14 pilings that were lost. No new damage was reported by Wednesday afternoon. —Los Angeles Times, January 5, 1995
In Ventura County, surf up to 14 feet high battered municipal piers in Port Hueneme and Ventura on Thursday. During the height of the storm Wednesday, waves ripped a 200-foot section from Port Hueneme’s pier and knocked loose pilings in Ventura. Damage was estimated at $250,000.
Crashing waves also began washing away an 8,000-square-foot training center and an aging fishing pier at the Point Mugu Naval Base. —Los Angels Times, January 6, 1995
In Port Hueneme, city workers struggled to shore up the 1,300-foot-municipal-pier one day after high surf ripped away a 200-foot section and 32 pilings.
Thursday dawned to clearing skies and sweeping vistas of snow-capped mountains, but signs of the two-día deluge that forecasters dubbed “the storm of the season” were visible throughout the county. In Port Hueneme, officials estimated the damage to the pier at $200,000 and said the destruction was devastating.
“This is a very sad moment because the city is financially strapped,” said City Manager Richard Veithoen. “We have no funds reserved to deal with such unexpected events.”
Unusually strong southerly winds Wednesday afternoon probably contributed to the problems at Port Hueneme Pier, said Rea Strange, a meteorologist at Pacific Weather Analysis in Montecito. Offshore winds normally approach Ventura County’s beaches from the west, he said.
“But Port Hueneme’s a south-facing beach and it got hit with some exceptionally strong southerly winds,” Strange said.
At Point Mugu naval base... the churning surf had broken through an 18-foot-high rock seawall and was beginning to wash away a training building...a nearby 150-foot-fishing pier was almost destroyed. Base officials said there is little they can do to save the training center and the pier, both built in the 1940s. —Los Angels Times, January 6, 1995
Storms: State Begins Digging Out
Fifty-three of the Ventura Pier’s wooden support poles have been destroyed or damaged since the storms began Jan. 3. In Port Hueneme, the sagging pier dropped another 12 inches; 38 pilings have been lost during the past week’s series of storms. —Los Angeles Times, January 12, 1995
Year End Recap — Calamities
Despite a $3.5-million reconstruction of the Ventura Pier in 1993, huge waves prompted $5000,000 in repairs last winter and caused another $1.5 million damage this month. That prompted debate that will continue into the new year about whether the 123-year-old boardwalk should be rebuilt with wood or with stronger, more expensive steel and concrete material. —Los Angeles Times, December 31, 1995
Last edited:
