“We don’t want people to lose hope,” Shepard said. He still foresees his RV camping, excursions, and fishing coming back to Sea Cliffs. “It may look a little different than it used to.”

Jill Polizzi and Alice Canela have been walking Sea Cliff State Beach in Santa Cruz County for over 15 years. Longtime friends often stroll on accessible sidewalks in parks rather than on their own neighborhoods or streets without sidewalks.

They returned with strollers and sun hats on January 25, three weeks after an unprecedented storm wreaked havoc on the park. Unfortunately, for now, their ceremony is interrupted by a large fence.

“It’s sad that they blocked the other end,” Polizzi said. “I hope they can afford to get this all back to normal.” A storm on January 5 cut power to Polizzi’s block for three days he said.

This type of storm isn’t new to California and isn’t necessarily caused by climate change, said Gary Griggs, an oceanographer at the University of California, Santa Cruz. For example, a similar storm hit the park 40 years ago. But climate models are predicting wetter atmospheric rivers, more landslides, and more flooding in the state’s future.

“As sea levels continue to rise, everything along the coastline will likely be affected more and more as the years and decades pass,” Griggs said.

Scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have found that winter storms in California can wet and cover a wider area. They elaborated on their findings in a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change.their Wet storm forecast was based on worst-case climate scenario Percentage of unreduced greenhouse gas emissions.

Atmospheric scientist Ruby Leung, author of the study, says Californians need to design more resilient buildings and bridges.

“The information we used to design our infrastructure before may no longer be relevant,” she said.

Investing in stronger infrastructure

Seacliff’s retaining walls collapsed in January storms and now require a redesign. Its role was to protect the park’s campgrounds and roads from the sea. According to Griggs, the wall, which he has destroyed eight times so far, should be rebuilt differently, reinforced with steel and larger logs.

Chris Pereira, road and trail manager for the Santa Cruz District of California State Parks, said state park employees were asking what materials to use, hoping to reinforce the retaining walls against rising sea levels and bigger storms. We are discussing whether to

Everything is on the table, from rebuilding walls in situ, to reinforcing them with steel and large rocks, to building sand dunes, to stabilizing them with plants, logs and rocks, he said.

His team is now working with engineers who specialize in coastal sea level rise to determine what can be rescued at the park. The pier they decided is not, Pereira said. They should tear it down or rebuild it.

Dave Miller, a visitor center volunteer, was walking children along the pier. He finally taught them how to fish from a boat. He is optimistic that the park will be rebuilt.

“If it’s destroyed this far, they’re going to put it back — like the president said, put it back better,” Miller said, referring to the Pres. Biden Jan. 19 visit to Sea Cliff. “These parks were never designed for ADA compliance or anything like that.”

During the visit, Biden promised to help rebuild the state.he expanded Federal Assistance to CaliforniansIn addition to The country’s resources are already in place.

“Anyone who suspects the climate is changing must have been asleep the last few years,” Biden said.

He noted California’s vulnerability to extreme weather, from storms to wildfires, saying, “These disasters are cumulative in a way, so we need stronger infrastructure to mitigate the impact of these disasters.” We need to invest in,” he said.

Rebuilding Begins at Seacliff State Beach

Park employees do not have an estimate of how long it will take to restore Sea Cliff. But he did, on January 25, when a 13-man crew loaded a pile of timber onto a truck. Part of it was to restore storm-ravaged trails elsewhere.

The team pulled away from fire restoration work at Big Basin Redwoods State Park to help with storm recovery. Hundreds of tons of rock protected the park to protect it from subsequent swells.

“We don’t normally do this kind of work,” said crew member Eamon Reynolds. “[It’s] A little overwhelming at first, but very rewarding at the same time. “

Reynolds recently built a retaining wall at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park using recycled sea cliff timber. In turn, he helps repair storm damage at other parks, including Wilder Ranch, Portola His Redwoods, and Butano State Park. He said rebuilding the trail will take longer than people think.

Canela, one of the local walkers, hopes that all of Sea Cliff’s trails will be restored soon. Unfortunately, Pereira said with all the damage the storm has done, it’s unlikely that will happen before spring.

It was a terrible storm, Polizzi recalls.

“But I mean, look where we live. Who can complain?” She said, pointing to the ocean. We are lucky compared to the states of