With El Niño approaching and recent high tides surpassing 8.5 feet, Coronado will hold four town hall meetings to address the early impacts and preparations for potential flooding.
In less than three weeks, the city will see another high tide event during Thanksgiving Week, and a following El Niño event during Christmas week.
The city is currently in a state of emergency as the island is expected to see a “very serious set of conditions,” according to City Manager Tina Friend.
High tides are expected to reach Coronado the weeks of Nov. 22 and Dec. 21 – projected to hit around 6.5 feet to 7 feet for both events.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), typical high tides rise to a level of 5 to 5.5 feet, although king tides and spring tides can reach 7.5 feet.
However, El Niños are often accompanied by Kelvin waves – a phenomenon where warm, subsurface ocean waters spread across the Pacific, temporarily raising sea levels.
According to Friend at a Nov. 3 City Council meeting, the Kelvin waves are expected to raise the high tides an additional 1.5 to 2 feet, bringing the tides to potentially over 9 feet during those weeks, with a threat of flooding in some areas.
“It’s almost unimaginable,” Friend said.
The city will be holding four town halls over the next two months to discuss community preparedness.
The first will be on Nov. 5 at the Cays Homeowners Association at 5 p.m.
The second will be on Nov. 10 at the Spreckels Center at 1 p.m.
The third will be held on Nov. 19 at the Nautilus Room at the Community Center at 5 pm.
And the fourth town hall will be on Dec. 7, also at the Nautilus Room at 5 p.m.
There will also be updated street sweeping schedules as the city tries to clean up debris from rain and storms during the El Niño season.
Street sweeping will occur from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday the weeks of Nov. 9, Nov. 23, Dec. 7 and Dec. 21, excluding holidays. Street sweeping maps can be found here.
“I just want to say thank you for the big push to really sweep these streets,” Council member Amy Steward said on Nov. 3. “It’s not just the debris, it’s all the little stuff that’s stuck in the gutter – that then when we have a rain storm, washes out.”
Friend pointed out that the city is a low-lying landform, situated mostly at sea level and surrounded by water with the ocean and the bay. The city’s storm water drainage system is also gravity-fed. Friend said both of these factors can be an issue with a rise in sea level.
All of that combined with a storm surge and extreme rainfall could bring a “once in a lifetime upscale event” to the city, Friend said.
