Weekend weather makes a mess

High surf and rain combine to clutter up shoreline, but city hears no reports of property damage.Big waves and the weekend’s rain combined to pile up a fairly sizable mess around Newport Beach’s shoreline.

“Because of the high surf, a lot of stuff is out there,” Newport Beach general services director Mark Harmon said. “We’ve got at least a week’s worth of cleanup to do.”

The beaches around the Newport and Balboa piers were the areas most affected by the rains, Harmon said. Though workers will be spending the coming days cleaning scattered palm fronds and other debris, Harmon said the storms did not cause any damage around Newport that required repair work.

The National Weather Service reported that in the 72 hours ending at 3:50 a.m. Tuesday, slightly less than one inch of rainfall was measured at John Wayne Airport. On Monday, the storm caused an unmanned 30-foot sailboat to sink near Corona del Mar.

There were also reported power outages Monday morning in Costa Mesa.

Monday morning was a hectic time for employees of Harmon’s department. To prevent flooding, Harmon said 19 general services staffers went to work with pumps and sandbags in low-lying areas, such as the Balboa Peninsula and Balboa Island. In addition to the rain, Harmon said city workers had to contend with a 7-foot-3 tide.

In Harmon’s assessment, workers were successful in their bout against Monday’s torrents. He said Tuesday afternoon that he was relieved not to have received any reports of private property damage caused by the rain.

“As far as I know, we didn’t have to close any streets” and people’s homes stayed dry, he said.

In Costa Mesa, city employees were assigned to repair rain-caused potholes Tuesday, but Bill Morris, the city’s public services director, said the fixes were “nothing out of the ordinary.”

The most significant storm-related happening Morris mentioned was having to clean up after some recently planted palm trees on 19th Street.

“We had a few branches, but other than that, we fared pretty well,” Morris said.

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be reached at (714) 966-4624 or by e-mail at [email protected].