City of Long Beach workers scrambled Sunday morning to build a sand berm stretching westward from 62nd Place on the Long Beach peninsula, with less than two hours before high tide.
City groundskeeper Robert Quinonez, who was spotting for the track hoe operator, said he didn’t believe they could build the berm high enough in time to prevent water from spilling into the street like it did Saturday. The residential street was half covered in sand left over from the prior day’s onslaught, and sandbags lined front doors and garages.
The track hoe operator repeatedly spun the machine to the west, dug into a mound of sand, spun 180 degrees and dropped the sand.
“We build as much as we can up, and just…” Quinonez said, trailing off.
Alphonso Tubbs, 56, chatted with Quinonez, looking at the work. Tubbs and his girlfriend had recently bought a condo on the street and were planning to move in a week.
Tubbs said he was grateful that the condo he bought was on the side of the street where the city was building a sandbar.
“Just imagine if I was just on that side,” he said, pointing east. “They’re about to get smashed.”
Marianna Messina, who has lived in Long Beach for 23 years, said the city’s work has been “excellent,” describing the operations to pump out water that had spilled into the street Saturday and remove a foot-thick layer of sand the water had deposited.
Messina, 62, said at least one of her friends’ homes has been red-tagged.
City officials said during a public briefing Saturday that Long Beach has already spent about $1 million bracing for the impacts on the peninsula.
By around 8:30 a.m., a steady stream of water was pouring down an alley between 64th and 63rd Place as Long Beach public workers set up water pumps, when suddenly a large volume of water started pouring down 63rd and onto Ocean Boulevard.
“It’s coming,” a worker shouted.
Three neighbors were shoveling a makeshift pathway for the water in the alley between 63rd and 64th Place, with a foot-thick layer of sand they said had been deposited a day earlier.
Jason Kravetz, 57, looked around the corner of the house towards the ocean.
“Here comes one,” he said, and 30 seconds later, water started pouring down the alleyway and on either side of the small sand path they’d created.
Robert Martin, 67, traced the pathway with his shovel, removing sand as the water flowed down the path and over his sneakers.
“It’s still coming,” Kravetz said.
The water stopped flowing, but the wind tearing down the alley and the crashing waves clearly signaled more was coming.
The three of them had been shoveling sand and dealing with the inundation for three days, Martin said. On Friday, water got into their garages.
Along the oceanfront, some houses had boarded-up windows or were partially protected with sandbags as waves crashed over wooden barriers between the ocean and the land.
Taking a break around 9:30 am, Kravetz leaned against his shovel, propped in the sand in front of the ocean, and looked into the distance.
He said he was hopeful that day the damage and water wouldn’t be extreme because the waves were much calmer than the previous day. The swell and wind were going in different directions, and the waves were disorganized.
“So far, I think it’s a good sign,” he said.
Seconds later, a wave crashed into the barrier, sending him running down the alley to where he and his neighbors had been piling two channels with sand.
A mass of water, the strongest so far that day, came down and poured along the intended paths.
“Hey, it worked, you guys,” he said.