High Surf in California, February 1 to 26, 1998

A series of powerful storms, lined up across the Pacific, generated periods of towering surf and swell that battered beach-front buildings and piers, hammered crumbling sea cliffs, and swamped low-lying coastal roads. Ten to fifteen foot waves were common, with a few sets reaching twenty feet in favored coastal locations. The waves were particularly destructive at times of astronomical high tides, since the normal tides were already running as much as one foot above normal due to El Nino conditions in the eastern Pacific. Early on the eighth, 5 mobile homes collapsed in San Clemente under the waves, and the Balboa Pier was undermined. In Encinitas, beach-front restaurants were repeatedly damaged and a parking lot was destroyed. Early on the twenty-fourth, two sea-side homes succumbed in Del Mar, and three others were evacuated and in danger of collapsing. People standing too close to the waves were swept off their feet, and lifeguards made numerous rescues. The waves pinned a woman against the rocks at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas around 5:00 PM on the seventh. Lifeguards struggled to pull her to safety. She was treated for hypothermia and bruises at a local hospital. Damage continued to mount well after the surf subsided.