Water Level Rising Quickly, As High Tide And Hurricane Sandy Near

Okay, folks. I appreciate the photos and videos, but it’s time to get indoors. Your own photos and videos show why.

Water levels are elevating very quickly around Manhattan Beach, Sheepshead Bay, Gerritsen Beach and Marine Park. This morning, high tide brought some flooding in Manhattan Beach, but this evening’s high tide will be much higher and rougher, as it coincides with the arrival of Hurricane Sandy. The storm will bring not only choppy waves during high tide, but a storm surge expected to reach as high as 11 feet.

The photo above comes from Paul Moses, who has more Pulitzer prizes than I do. He went out to Marine Park to check out the Gerritsen Creek salt marsh.

Here’s a photo taken about 4:50 p.m. You’ll see it’s about a foot away from overflowing, three hours before high tide. The water has covered all the rocks. Also, the footbridge to the nature trail is swamped. The water is very high, but still far off from flooding any homes.

Over at the Breakers condo development on Emmons Avenue, Albert shows us how high the water is coming up against their bulkhead, which is about the same level as the public bulkhead along Emmons Avenue.

When we posted this morning about Manhattan Beach flooding, we began getting e-mails from those who visited the area around noon saying that it wasn’t flooded. That’s because it was low tide, and the water receded. But that progress was quickly lost. Mike sent us this video, filmed at 1:00 p.m.

Probably one of the most illustrative videos we’ve seen is this one by Michael Y. After filming a relatively calm Manhattan Beach esplanade during low-tide, he returned at approximately 3:30 p.m. In the few minutes he’s standing there filming, you can see the water creep up, eventually overtaking the bulkhead and pouring out onto the street. Again – this is 4.5 hours before high tide!