First came the crack. Then came the collapse.
After weeks of hurricane-generated surf and elevated tides hammered Southern California, a section of coastal bluff near Pacific Coast Highway at El Morro, beside Crystal Cove State Park, broke away toward the ocean. Laguna Beach skimboarder Blair Conklin has documented the deteriorating coastline in dramatic footage.
Check out the cliff collapsing video below.
Days earlier, Conklin spotted a fracture running alarmingly close to the road. But now, he captured portions of the cliff collapsing onto the beach below.
“I literally just watched part of the cliff fall,” Conklin explained in his footage. “We just watched a good portion of the cliff crumble… that region of the cliff is below the big crack that kind of leads up to PCH.”
Conklin noted that the surging ocean was directly responsible for the destruction.
“It’s peak high tide and waves are really getting up to the bottom of it. As you can tell, it’s just washing away and making the cliff steeper and steeper until it gives out.”
Related: Watch: Giant Crack Opens Beneath PCH as Super El Niño Surf Batters Orange County
Caltrans closed one southbound lane between Reef Point Drive and Irvine Cove Drive as crews assess the hillside’s stability. The roadway itself has not been reported to have collapsed.
The surrounding coast is taking a beating, too. California State Parks cited “significant coastal erosion and infrastructure damage” in temporarily closing sections of Crystal Cove and San Onofre. At Crystal Cove, occupants of 26 historic beachfront cottages were evacuated as a precaution.
The immediate battering followed swells from Tropical Storm Rachel, building on erosion from earlier hurricane-driven waves. Meanwhile, an El Niño-associated Kelvin wave can elevate background sea levels by roughly six to 12 inches, allowing waves and tides to reach farther inland.
Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley described the coastline as being “under siege right now,” as officials worked to reinforce battered beaches farther south.
UC Irvine coastal erosion expert Brett Sanders warned CBS that continued failure could threaten a critical connection between Laguna Beach and Newport Beach.
And the timing is ominous: California faces the prospect of a powerful El Niño winter, with further storms and high surf still ahead.
More coastal erosion is almost 100 percent certain.
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