Levee survives storm

Rain fell hard on Huntington Beach this weekend, but heavy precipitation didn’t flood neighborhoods next to a crumbling levee.

Just after the eroding East Garden Grove-Wintersburg Channel next to the Bolsa Chica Wetlands passed the test of heavy rainfall this weekend, workers began Monday to bolster it against collapse.

As rain began to fall Friday, Orange County Flood Control employees patrolled the area around the clock to make sure waters wouldn’t spill into the surrounding neighborhood. But this storm didn’t strongly worry flood control officials, Division Manager Nadeem Majaj said.

“The forecasted rain amounts were never a concern for us this weekend,” he said. “But as a precaution we deployed our flood patrols around the clock throughout the storm. However, the levee was never in danger this weekend.”

With forecasts of heavy rain over the weekend, residents prepared for a downpour. Ultimately an average of 1.12 inches of rain fell on the city in the weekend storm, according to city reports.

The highest recorded amount, 1.76 inches, was at a flood control pump station near Warner Avenue and Goldenwest Street.

Just as clear skies returned, emergency repair work on the levee finally began after several weeks’ delay. Workers drove massive steel sheets into the earthen north wall of the channel near Graham Street and Kenilworth Avenue, which Majaj said would take a little more than a month.

“We’re anticipating installing the steel in the ground by mid-February, and the project completion by mid-March,” he said.

But the segment of channel being fixed up now, which runs nearly from the ocean to Kenilworth Drive and Graham Avenue, is only the beginning. Flood control officials have the rest of the channel, which runs through Beach Boulevard, in their sights for a fix over the next few years.

The district is applying to the Army Corps of Engineers for a permit to shore up the channel up through Warner Avenue.

A public comment period is open through Monday, and residents can e-mail yong.j.chung@usace.army.mil, referencing permit SPL-2007-1256-YJC, with any concerns or comments about the project’s impact.