OCEANSIDE, Calif. (KGTV) — Hurricane Polo is bringing big waves to the San Diego region's beaches, including those in the North County.
In Oceanside, those big waves hit the beaches over the weekend, but the city told ABC 10News it was a little bit smaller than it was anticipating. Lifeguards, though, said they still had a pretty busy weekend.
“We've experienced an influx of calls over the weekend, definitely as the summer has transitioned to the shoulder period that we're in,” said Lifeguard Captain Tyler Berry with the Oceanside Fire Department.
Berry told ABC 10News the lifeguards in Oceanside have been experiencing big waves over the last year, well before what Hurricane Polo brought to shore.
“We've had very warm water, very ideal beach conditions in the city of Oceanside, and we're actively training and preparing to provide the best services we can,” Berry said. “We do have the dredge here that kind of limits the amount of people on the beach in some areas.”
That sand dredging also helps protect the shores during the upcoming El Niño season.
“What we're trying to do with this dredging and with the sand placement is to build out that buffer between the ocean and again the built environment,” said City of Oceanside Coastal Program Manager Jayme Timberlake. “And that sandy beach buffer becomes more than just recreational space; it actually becomes our safety space between those big waves and us.”
Timberlake also told ABC 10News that Oceanside fared pretty well with the summer swells the area saw thanks to sand management.
“We did actually dredging in spring of last year as well. And so, at that time we placed 320,000 cubic yards of material. Now fall, only four months later, we're going to place another 380,000 cubic yards of material,” Timberlake said. “And so all this kind of sand management is how we've been able to stave off any emergency issues.”
The importance of that dredging is what Oceanside’s City Manager Jonathan Borrego told ABC 10News last week when it comes to the city’s El Niño preparations.
“And in reality, that additional sand on the beach, putting it in the fall, will actually provide quite a bit of additional protection from potential stormwater surge,” Borrego said last Tuesday in an interview with ABC 10News.
And just down Interstate 5, the City of Encinitas is also getting ready for El Niño along with these latest waves.
“When we talk about a precursor to El Niño, El Niño is here already, right? We have the high humidities, the high pressure is starting to go north, so we're getting the, the high swell or the high tide,” said Encinitas Fire Department Chief Josh Gordon.
So, Gordon said people need to prepare.
“We have a plan of action as we prepare for El Niño and then our response to El Niño, and then what that recovery looks like afterwards. But the residents should be doing the same thing,” Gordon said. “The citizens of Encinitas should be looking at their homes, looking at their rain gutters, looking where they are in the city and what kind of flooding happens around them.
