Crews work to clear flooded streets in Seal Beach as more high tides expected

SEAL BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- Seal Beach was hit with unexpected flooding following big swells during high tide Wednesday evening and the city is preparing for a possible round two Thursday night.

The National Weather Service issued a beach hazard for most of Southern California's coastline including Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura county beaches.

There have no reports of any damage but the flooding did catch residents off guard.

"We've seen a lot of boardwalk flooding over the years but it's mostly just through the winter that you see that kind of boardwalk flooding," said one resident who lives near the affected area. "Very unusual to have it in May this late in the season."

"The water was up over the wall. It was up over my knees last night when it started coming in."

Seal Beach Marine Safety Chief Joe Bailey said the city didn't expect this action from a south swell.

"But because this happened, obviously, we're going to be keeping a close eye on it in the future," he said.

Bailey adds the city's public works department is working to clean up Wednesday's mess. Crews have put two pumps in place which will take the water that has ponded in the parking lot and low-lying area back to the ocean.

They're also rebuilding a sand barrier, which the city and residents hope keeps the water away.

"Each year, Seal Beach puts up a winter sand berm and that bern goes up right before Thanksgiving and it comes down right before Spring Break," explained Bailey. "This year, we extended that because of the wet winter season we had but that berm has been taken down so right now, the city is putting up an emergency berm that hopefully stops the water tonight during the high tide."

High tide is expected at 9 p.m. on Thursday.

The city will be keeping a close eye on the water and hope the berm they've build will do its job.