In a brief special meeting on Dec. 27, three Santa Cruz County Supervisors declared a local emergency, which will allow officials to request state and federal assistance for the damages from the heavy surf, winds and storm surge on Dec. 23 and 24.
The waves broke away 150 feet of the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf and drove debris onto numerous beaches and into the Santa Cruz Small Yacht Harbor, where it sank at least 6 boats and damaged numerous others, said Dave Reed, who manages the county’s Office of Response, Recovery & Resilience.
East Cliff Drive, the Rio Del Mar Esplanade and Beach Drive were also damaged, as were businesses in Santa Cruz, the Santa Cruz Port District, Rio Del Mar and Capitola.
Damages are still being tallied, but officials say they have so far been assessed at more than $25 million, a number that is expected to rise. This is not including private property.
Friday was the fourth year in a row the county has made such a declaration.
“(The) county for the last 5-6 years has been in almost permanent state of disaster repair, and as soon as we start to bail out of it, something else seems to happen,” Supervisor Zach Friend said.
The county will now forward the resolution to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office.
Santa Cruz officials have said that the restaurants, retail shops and other businesses on the wharf will remain closed indefinitely as they assess the damage and determine the safety of the structure. As many as 20 businesses along the wharf remain closed until further notice.
For Lisa Orr-Donnelly of Capitola, who joined a crowd of about 100 people on Seabright State Beach watching the demolishing work, the sight hit a personal note.
Orr-Donnelly said she worked at the Dolphin Restaurant around 1982, which was demolished after the 2023 damage. She also worked at Stagnaro Bros. Seafood Inc. and was at Riva Fish House when the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake struck.
“It’s incredible that this washed up here in front of the Boardwalk and in front of the Wharf,” she said.
Michael Brantley was fishing on the wharf with his son when a series of larger waves started hitting.
“I could see that the wharf was swaying a little bit, and I knew (the workers) noticed it too, because after a big wave would come they would take a second to look at the pylons and then go about their job,” he said.
Brantley said he wasn’t worried at that point—despite the heavy waves—particularly when he saw many other people fishing, eating in the restaurants and going in and out of the shops.
“It was pretty busy, and there were a ton of surfers in the water,” he said. “It was a sight to see, but for the most part it felt safe.”
But then, a series of larger waves began to hit, he said.
“I thought, oh my god, one more is going to make this go,” he said.
Then a large wave hit and he heard a series of cracks.
“You could see it do more than a wobble,” he said. “It kind of started to fold a bit. I told my son, ‘run, run run!’ I turned around to look, and it was gone.”
After the shock wore off, he saw that there were people who had fallen into the water.
He also saw a worker floating on a large platform that had broken off.
“It was an amazing sight,” Brantley said. “She was just standing there with her hands on her head.”
A man on a wave-runner helped pick up the woman, and and the people from the water.
“It was pretty frightening,” he said. “Everyone was in disbelief and shock.”
Meanwhile, the Public Works Department in Capitola said one of the piles torn loose from the Santa Cruz Wharf was shoved by high seas into the Capitola Wharf, jarring some footings and shaking loose several deck planks on the 167-year-old wharf. That forced officials to close the wharf for a week, just three months after a reopening ceremony drew hundreds to celebrate a major storm repair. It reopened Monday after crews tacked down the loose planks.
Tarmo Hannula contributed to this report.
