By Jondi Gumz
Treasured places — Seacliff State Beach, the pier to the Cement Ship, Capitola’s Wharf, Capitola’s Bandstand, and popular restaurants on the Capitola Village Esplanade — are no longer themselves, devastated after epic winter storms that began New Year’s Eve with no end in sight.
Hwy 9 is shut down at Graham Hill Road on Jan. 10. • Photo Credit: Jondi Gumz
After multiple drought years, one rain gauge reported 23 inches of rain in 10 days.
Unrelenting rain, overflowing creeks in the Santa Cruz Mountains all the way to Monterey Bay, and ocean swells wreaked havoc, flooding streets, creating sinkholes, knocking out electricity, closing schools and leaving mud and debris behind.
The storm dropped 10 inches of rain in 24 hours in Bonny Doon — and all that water ran downhill.
The first wave of storms left damages estimated at $10 million to $12 million, according to county Supervisor Zach Friend.
The next wave of storms in unincorporated areas left damages that exceed $29 million (largely to roads) as Jan. 9, according to Dave Reid, the county’s recovery chief.
That doesn’t include Capitola, an incorporated city of 10,000 that depends on tourism and saw nine business red-tagged for safety reasons.
Soquel Creek, a bucolic tributary in the summer, became a weapon of destruction as trees upstream were swept downstream, creating logjams at bridges, destroying the foundations of the Esplanade restaurants and ripping through their plumbing and electrical systems.
Community Foundation Santa Cruz County swiftly announced a Disaster Fund to help neighbors harmed by the storms. See story, page 7.
A wall of driftwood and other debris line the beach near the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. • Photo Credit: Alisha Walton
Waterfront restaurants on the Esplanade include Zelda’s on the Beach, My Thai Beach, Bay Bar & Grill, the Sand Bar, Paradise Beach Grille and Margaritaville.
At Zelda’s, closet to the ocean, the front wall was smashed by a support beam from the Capitola Wharf.
Margaritaville owners posted on Instagram that they will be closed through January for repairs.
From Stockton Bridge, observers on foot saw muddy Soquel Creek pulsing and rising and ocean waves battering evacuated buildings that used to offer visitors serene and scenic views.
Aptos real estate agent Ben Strock launched a GoFundMe campaign, featuring a photo of the beachfront pastel Venetian Hotel to raise $50,000 for shuttered Capitola businesses to help employees who won’t be getting federal aid.
Give at www.gofundme.com/f/rebuild-capitola-businesses-affected-by-the-storm
The “support Capitola Village” photo post on Instagram has more than 6,000 likes.
Owners of businesses that remain open in Capitola Village ask for your patronage.
Who will hire?
For scores of Esplanade employees out of work for who knows how long, the Capitola-Soquel Chamber of Commerce announced an effort to find jobs for displaced workers. Provide information on the name of the business, job opening details, contact person and information to: jeanne@capitolachamber.com or call 831-475-6522.
The Capitola Recreation Department is compiling a list to coordinate placing volunteers. Call 475-5935. Staff answer the phone Monday through Friday; leave a detailed message and you can be added to their list.
State Parks
Seacliff State Beach, known for its historic 1919 Cement Ship, the Palo Alto, with a well-known pier for fishing, had 63 campsites and 26 hookup sites wiped out by ocean swells. Only half of the pier remains. More than half the seawall is gone, and pavement (and utilities) disappeared.
The USS Palo Alto, Aptos “Cement Ship”, and its pier suffer significant damage. • Photo Credit: Zach Friend
Some onlookers captured video of the pier to the Cement Ship disappearing after being repeated pummeled by the waves.
The promenade is washed out in huge sinkholes, large sections of wood fencing gone, and every picnic table and pavilion are ruined.
State Parks leaders do not have an estimate of the damages but expect the Federal Emergency Management Agency, known as FEMA, to provide some reimbursement.
The Seacliff Beach State Park shutdown is a huge blow to a county where much of Big Basin State Park remains closed after the 2020 CZU lightning fire destroyed the park headquarters.
Also closed: Forest of Nisene Mark State Park in Aptos, New Brighton State Beach in Capitola, Manresa State Beach and Sunset State Beach in Watsonville, and Wilder Ranch, Santa Cruz Mission, Natural Bridges, Lighthouse Field, Twin Lakes in Santas Cruz.
State Parks will reassess parks conditions for reopening on Friday, Jan. 13.
Local leaders, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, and the Capitola Chamber of Commerce, have approved resolutions declaring a state of emergency, putting them in position to apply for state and federal aid.
Governor in Capitola
On Tuesday, a day when the sun provided a break from the storm, a casually dressed Gov. Gavin Newsom visited Capitola and toured the damaged Esplanade businesses with City Manager Jamie Goldstein, Mayor Margaux Keiser, and Police Chief Andrew Dalley.
California Governor Gavin Newsom visited the City of Capitola on Tuesday, touring the damaged businesses and speaking to the public with local leaders in attendance (below). • Photos provided by Zach Friend
Wade Crowfoot, the state’s natural resources secretary, also saw the damage from a 50-year swell first-hand.
The wiped-out Bandstand was a key element to the summer festivals, where local musicians entertained one and all for dancing next to the ocean.
The Wharf, built in 1856, was being upgraded by the city in piecemeal fashion as funding became available. Now a massive chunk is missing, leaving the Wharf House restaurant inaccessible and putting the future of fishing derbies in doubt. Some said the place where the Wharf broke in half had broken before, based on historical photos, but that does not lessen the shock.
”I remember in years past that the end of the Wharf broke off and had to be replaced,” Larry Berent posted on NextDoor. ”The ocean always wins sooner or later.”
City officials have adopted the slogan, ”Capitola Strong,” for the efforts to rebuild.
For homeowners along Soquel Creek who lost decks in the storm, he’s not sure they will be allowed to put them back.
The local destruction was so great, it made the TV news, on “Good Morning America,” CNN, “World News Tonight,” and even The Weather Channel.
Rio Del Mar
In Rio Del Mar, which was ordered to evacuate on Jan. 4, wave after wave rushed into the parking lot of Rio Del Mar State Beach, reaching the Beachside Venus Spirits Cocktails & Kitchen, which had been closed since November for renovations by the new owner.
Photos by Vince Grimaldi show how the storm surf surge pushed a house off its post-and-pier blocks on Beach Drive in Rio Del Mar. — This image shows where the house was • Below: House now sits in the middle of Beach Drive
Tall eucalyptus trees in La Selva Beach were uprooted, with one falling across the street, another landing on the roof, cascading over fences.
Santa Cruz County spokesman Jason Hoppin said the ground was so saturated that more rain could result in more trees falling down. Dozens of homes have already been hit.
For county leaders, the latest powerful storm was a reminder of the last big one in 2017, which caused $122 million in damages to roads in the unincorporated areas. Repairs from that storm are two-thirds complete, so the to-do list is ever so much longer.
The owner of Ming’s on Soquel Drive said she had no advance warning of potential flooding on New Year’s Eve, discovering water coming under the door while she ate dinner. Her restaurant got six inches of muddy water.
Pajaro Valley Schools
The unpredictability of the storms had a whiplash effect on Pajaro Valley schools, which were scheduled to reopen on Jan. 9 after a long winter break.
At first, Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez announced 15 schools in Watsonville to be close due to the flood advisory, then closed all schools, including those in Aptos, due to the flash flood watch, and they remained closed Tuesday.
Aptos schools reopened Wednesday but Watsonville High and nine other schools including Ohlone Elementary remained closed due to evacuation orders by the city of Watsonville, Santa Cruz County or Monterey County.
Pajaro River
Dozens of homes in the 55+ community of Pajaro Village in Watsonville were flooded during the storm when the Corralitos Creek, a tributary of the Pajaro River, overflowed and sent muddy water through the neighborhood.
The city of Watsonville posted a photo of a waterway swollen muddy brown, but the Pajaro River has not breached its aged levee, built in 1949 and federally approved for replacement.
On Wednesday morning, the Pajaro Bridge, which crosses the Pajaro River from Watsonville to Monterey County, was closed. The Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, at 21601 E. Lake Ave., Watsonville, offers overnight shelter for evacuees, but East Lake Avenue is closed, so take an alternate route to get to the fairgrounds.
With more wet weather forecasted, residents were given evacuation warnings that they should be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.
In case the Pajaro River would flood, the National Guard was stationed by Pajaro Valley Golf Club, which is close to Ohlone Elementary. To limit traffic congestion, the Pajaro Valley school district transported Ohlone students to Rolling Hills Middle School in Watsonville for their families to pick them up.
Each day by 5 p.m., district officials announced plans based on weather conditions and forecasts for the next day.
On Monday, Cabrillo College in Aptos began serving as a shelter for those evacuated, with 100 cots in the cafeteria. Check-in is at Building 900.
Medical shelter is available at Community Health Trust of Pajaro Valley, 85 Nielson St., Watsonville.
Levee Repairs
On Tuesday, Santa Cruz County officials said ”signs of seepage along an earthen levee” prompted ”emergency repair” along the Pajaro River levee system.
Granite Rock, the contractor, started work Wednesday on a “seepage berm” in an agricultural area more than a mile upstream of the confluence of the Pajaro River and Salsipuedes Creek. The work, expected to take one week, is similar to an emergency 1,600-foot repair completed in 2017 just south of this area, county officials said.
The repair is to support the levee during and after the storm until replacement work authorized by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can begin.
”Any standing water is from localized flooding, not the Pajaro River,” county officials posted on Facebook.
Others worry about the San Luis Reservoir in Merced overflowing. Federal officials agreed to raise the dam by 10 feet, a $1 billion project that began in June and is expected to be complete in 2028.
The situation reminded one local of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden: It never failed that during the dry years, the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years, they lost all memory of the dry years.
Top Photo Credit: Gabe McKenna, California State Parks.
