SEAL BEACH, Calif. — For many, living just blocks away from the ocean is the California dream. 

It’s a dream come true for Merrick Rustia, who goes surfing almost every day.

“Everyone wants to be coastal, so you know, you work hard over the years, and you finally make it. So this is kind of where we landed,” he said.

Rustia has owned a home in Seal Beach for 10 years. Lately, he has started noticing the impacts of El Nino on the beaches.

“[The surf] kind of scoops the sand out and creates this berm, and right now we will walk out there — it is like a four-foot berm,” Rustia said.

This comes as homes in neighboring cities, such as Long Beach and down the coast in Dana Point, are being destroyed by abnormally large winter swells.

“Forecasts on all 27 models right now are all predicting at least a 3.4 El Nino,” said Kevin Kothlow with Team Rubicon while teaching a flood mitigation course to Seal Beach staff. 

For the first time, the city of Seal Beach brought in Team Rubicon’s disaster response team to train city staff in person. 

“Do you guys see where that broke? That is not the chain that is supposed to be happening,” Kothlow said while teaching staff and volunteers how to work with sandbags. 

During the training, they learned erosion control, how to build sandbag structures, several flood prevention techniques and how to create an exit plan.

“When you get an alert on your phone saying there is a flash flood coming, that is not the time to do a three-point turn to get out of there,” Kothlow said. 

On top of preparing for future flooding, crews in Seal Beach regularly construct a giant sand berm to protect homes. Public Works and Marine Safety also position heavy-duty water pumps along low-lying vulnerable areas when they anticipate a storm is coming.

“There is so much beach here that we are pretty lucky,” Rustia said while standing on a beach near his home.

In the 10 years he has lived in Seal Beach, Rustia has never been impacted by flooding — but it is something he says he’s always on the lookout for.

“As a homeowner, we’re always concerned about it, you know, because we have the marina on that side and the ocean on this side,” he said. “And it can happen. You never know.”