Updated Dec 31, 2023 - Energy & Climate

Evacuation warning lifted for coastal California after 3 days of havoc

California waves damage buildings — Apartments along the beach in Capitola, Calif., are boarded up on Dec. 30 as huge surf batters the West Coast. Photo: Daniel Dreifuss/AFP via Getty Images

Waves soaring as high as 25 feet slammed coastal California and southern Oregon for three days, flooding homes and businesses, damaging streets and washing away parked cars before subsiding.

The latest: "Surf will be above advisory levels thru at least Sunday, making additional coastal flooding possible," according to the National Weather Service.

An evacuation warning issued for parts of the coast in Southern California's Ventura County was lifted late on Saturday.
Showers that lasted days in several coastal areas of California dissipated, and another weather service warning of high surf lessened to an advisory in the San Francisco Bay Area.
As of Saturday night, eight people had been taken to hospitals with injuries in Ventura County, the Ventura County Fire Department told Axios.

Our thought bubble: The damaging high waves were the result of a parade of storms lined up across the Pacific, Axios senior climate reporter Andrew Freedman wrote.

Waves as high as 25 feet have been common, with so-called "rogue waves" exceeding this.
An El Niño climate pattern in the tropical Pacific helped to give rise to these storms while also slightly elevating sea levels, on top of human-caused sea level rise, Freedman continued. This makes the waves more impactful for communities.

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Editor's note: This story has been updated throughout with weather conditions.

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Evacuation warning lifted for coastal California after 3 days of havoc

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