Carmel Point residents urged to evacuate as storm surge floods Carmel River Lagoon.

As a deluge of rain fell on the Monterey County coastline on Thursday morning, Jan. 5, officers from the Sheriff’s Office went door-to-door in the neighborhood of Carmel Point, just north of the Carmel River Lagoon, urging residents to evacuate and find shelter elsewhere.

The area was subject to an evacuation order early Thursday, one that was subsequently downgraded to a warning by the afternoon. Still, residents reported flooding over the course of the day as massive storm swells—estimated at 35 to 50 feet, according to authorities—came crashing into the lagoon from the Pacific Ocean. 

Even as skies cleared on Thursday afternoon—offering a reprieve from the “atmospheric river” storm system that has already dumped several inches of rain on Monterey County this week—there were concerns that even higher tides in the evening could prompt more, if not worse, flooding.

“My wife is evacuating, but I’m staying,” says Carmel Point resident Simon Bull, who noted that he would remain behind to monitor the family’s belongings and move them as necessary. 

By Bull’s estimation, the Carmel River Lagoon had risen a remarkable seven inches per hour earlier Thursday morning, flooding his neighborhood street just north of the lagoon, which had since been closed to traffic by the police. While those waters had receded as of noon Thursday, Bull expected that the worst was yet to come; he pulled up a tide tracker on his cell phone, which indicated that even higher tides would be arriving by around 9:30pm Thursday night.

“We’ve lived here 11 years and this is the worst flooding we’ve seen,” according to Bull. He noted that the last time the neighborhood had seen such serious flooding two years ago, it was the result of the Carmel River overflowing. This time, however, the area is dealing with an exceptionally strong storm surge—one that has battered the coast with large waves and, in the case of Carmel Point, breached the neighboring lagoon with ocean waters. 

Though Thursday’s evacuation order in Carmel Point was eventually downgraded to a warning, county workers remained on site in the neighborhood in the afternoon, barricading streets close to the lagoon with sandbags and pumping out flood water as necessary. 

Just about five miles to the south, the Yankee Point neighborhood remains under an evacuation order, issued at about 11:30am Thursday. The area is exposed to high surf, and breaking waves as high as 30 feet were predicted in a high surf warning issued by the National Weather Service.