First came the crack. Then the cliff started crumbling. Now comes the $4 million.
At El Morro, crews have pulled a massive plastic sheet over the damage like a Band-Aid on California’s battered coastline. New footage shows Caltrans workers covering the fractured bluff beneath Pacific Coast Highway at Crystal Cove State Park.
Check out the latest video below.
Earlier videos captured chunks of earth tumbling toward the ocean as hurricane-generated surf chewed away at the slope’s base.
“This is a major development,” Laguna Beach skimboarder and surfer Conklin says in the footage. “They’ve got a lot of tarping to do. They’re going to have to tarp the whole hillside to help avoid a major slide with all the rain.”
But the plastic is just the beginning.
Related: Massive Cliff Collapse Near PCH Caught on Camera as El Niño Batters California (Video)
Caltrans District 12 has reportedly secured $4 million in initial emergency funding and enlisted contractor Ortiz Enterprises, Inc. to tackle the problem.
According to Laguna Beach City Manager Dave Kiff, the three-phase response involves:
- Temporary tarps: Covering the fractured hillside to help prevent rainwater from entering the cracks and further destabilizing the slope.
- Massive boulders: Installing riprap at the cliff’s base to absorb wave energy and reduce further erosion.
- Long-term stabilization: Engineering a more permanent redesign of the slope to protect the highway.
“Caltrans has their best people on it, I’m convinced of that,” Kiff said, explaining that the emergency has drawn attention from officials in Sacramento.
A newly filed state notice confirms emergency measures to stabilize the slope and roadway. One southbound PCH lane remains closed, while California State Parks has shut the beach below the unstable bluff.
The threat is particularly heartbreaking for anyone familiar with El Morro.
Once home to a beloved trailer park community, the beach also harbors a fickle, almost mythical surf spot, immortalized during an earlier El Niño in Volcom’s 1998 VHS classic Magna Plasm.
Now, relentless hurricane swells, elevated tides, and an El Niño-associated Kelvin wave have stripped sand and undercut the coastline.
And with more high surf and winter storms possible, that $4 million emergency response faces a formidable opponent: the Pacific Ocean.
Related: Watch: Seawall Collapses at Iconic SoCal Hotel Amid Massive Surf
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