No major issues in beach cities reported as Orange County welcomes winter rains
The rain arrived Thursday evening and continued to come in scattered showers on Friday, but it was going to take more than a rainy day to keep some inside.
After the most recent stay-at-home order was lifted on Monday, some local residents were out to patronize the restaurants at lower Forest Avenue in Laguna Beach.
Known as the Promenade on Forest, the pedestrian plaza came about in June to offer an outdoor option for local restaurants and retail businesses to continue to operate during the coronavirus pandemic.
It has since become popular among many residents, including Igor Kudryashov, 39, of Laguna Beach, who said he hopes the Promenade will remain in place after the pandemic.
Kudryashov went to Moulin, where he tried to get his young son to pose for a picture under the shade of a red umbrella at their table.
Asked about his decision to dine out on a rainy day, Kudryashov noted he was used to the weather, saying, “I had been living in Russia, in St. Petersburg, more than 15 years, so this is nothing. More than 100 days a year, it’s rainy and stormy [there].”
Customers at Alessa, an Italian restaurant, could be served at tables under the roof outside or be seated under a tent set up in the adjacent area designated for outdoor dining.
Larissa Abney, the manager at Alessa, said the lifting of the stay-at-home order was a blessing that excited the staff.
“Getting that news on Monday was definitely the highlight of our week and our month and a great start to the year,” Abney said.
Reaction from customers has been equally positive, she said.
“Rain or shine, they are here,” Abney said. “They’re excited. They’re excited to be able to sit down at a table, and you can see when the people sit down, it’s a giant sigh of relief that they can get back to something they enjoyed so much.”
Up and down Forest Avenue, open doors greeted walking traffic, although there were still some signs of preparations for the storm with sandbags and floodgates out.
“The City of Laguna Beach prepared for the storm by adding extra staffing and patrols to monitor flood-prone and high-risk areas around the City, and leadership monitored the situation overnight,” Laguna Beach Emergency Operations Coordinator Brendan Manning said in a statement. “In advance of the storm, the team from Public Works also assessed the rain catch basins in and around the Promenade on Forest to ensure they were clear.
“As a result of these efforts, there was no issue overnight with flooding or standing water on Forest Avenue or at the Promenade. We are pleased that these mitigation measures, including the community’s efforts putting out sandbags and installing floodgates, helped ensure that the storm’s impact to our community was minimal.”
Huntington Beach and Newport Beach had also made sandbags available to residents as a precaution.
Largely empty beaches were seen in Huntington Beach, where access to the pier was also gated off.
Jesse Evans, 41, of Huntington Beach was one of the last people to exit the water after enjoying about an hour of surfing.
“I like it because there’s nobody out,” Evans said of surfing in the rain. “There’s way less people. Usually, it’s crowded … If you’re a local and you’ve lived here for long enough, [you get] little weird days like this where there’s nobody out. It’s way more fun than a good day with a bunch of people.”
Evans said he wanted to stay out longer, but those in the water were being asked to evacuate because of thunderstorms in the area.
An evacuation warning was also issued at Huntington State Beach at about 11 a.m., Garrett Adriano, a senior park aide, said. The warning lasted for roughly 30 minutes.
“I do know that there was an evacuation warning, and that was mainly due to the thunder and lightning,” Adriano said. “That’s why they issued a warning on the beach to take shelter and basically keep clear of the shore, due to the storm coming in.”
Local cities did not report significant damage due to the storm, which as of late Friday afternoon had dropped 1.29 inches in Corona del Mar, .94 in Huntington Beach, .45 to .79 in areas of Laguna Beach and .91 in Costa Mesa, according to the National Weather Service.
John Pope, the public information manager for Newport Beach, said in an email that the city did have crews with water pumps out, but he said flooding did not occur. He did report a couple of trees fell.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department had issued a voluntary home evacuation warning for those living in Silverado Canyon, Williams Canyon and Modjeska Canyon.
The warning, given for homes located in the Bond fire burn area because of possible flooding and debris flow, was lifted at 4 p.m. Friday, O.C. sheriff’s spokeswoman Carrie Braun said.
“There was some debris flow in the area,” Braun said. “It did cause the blockage of a few roadways, but Public Works did a great job of getting that cleared very quickly. The roadways reopened midday today.”
Braun added that the voluntary home evacuation warning was in effect through the end of a flash flood warning for the area that was issued by the National Weather Service.
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