Curtain Call Scheduled Today : High Tide Plays to a Big Audience

While the highest local tide in two decades worried some coastal merchants, hundreds of spectators gathered to view the rising waters.

In Sunset Beach, about 200 residents and passers-by congregated near Broadway and Pacific Coast Highway, where the right-hand northbound lane was closed for three hours because of flooding.

The area is near a lagoon and beach where water overflowed onto the highway about 8:30 a.m., forcing motorists to drive slowly because of hazardous conditions. Pressure from the rising water also overwhelmed the community’s sewer system, forcing gushing water from sewers along a three-quarter-mile highway area.

“You wouldn’t believe the number of people who came here to look. It was like a big celebration,” said Jim Kinney, a carpenter in the unincorporated Sunset Beach community.

Low Water, Too

The tide, which peaked at more than seven feet along the county coastline, will exceed seven feet again this morning, but only slightly. The high-water mark will occur shortly after 9:15 a.m. The low-water mark--when tide pools may be observed--will occur shortly after 4:30 p.m.

As TV camera crews recorded the high-water scene in Sunset Beach Wednesday morning, curious motorists parked their vehicles for a better view as the number of spectators grew.

Rolf Pridham, owner of a 10-foot-tall unicycle, seized the opportunity to perform before the mobile audience, amid cheers from the crowd.

Water entered only one office, a copying business in the 16000 block on Pacific Coast Highway. But Kinney, who was refurbishing the rear of the same building, said that damage was slight.

Caltrans closed the northbound lane about 7:15 a.m. It was reopened about 10:30 a.m., an Orange County deputy sheriff said.

Merchants and residents said they were prepared, pointing to hundreds of sandbags supplied by Sunset’s volunteer Fire Department that had blocked rising sea water from a nearby bay.

Warning of Tides

Sunset Beach boat shop owner Lenore McKenzie said last month’s high tides served as a warning.

“Hey, the only reason why people came out to look today is because of all the publicity this week. But last month’s high tide came up higher,” she said, pointing to the street curb.

Wednesday’s tide, McKenzie said, “was a piece of cake.”

McKenzie noted that damage was major in 1983, when heavy rainstorms coincided with high tides, and the result was millions of dollars in property damage.

In Newport Beach, Schock Boats, which fronts Newport Bay on Lafayette Avenue, was flooded with about six inches of water, but a store spokesman said there was no damage.