dpa
San Francisco
A massive wave injured eight people and sent onlookers running on Thursday when unusually high surf pounded coastal areas of Ventura, a beach town about an hour northwest of Los Angeles.
The Ventura County Fire Department posted a video on social media showing the scary moment a "rogue wave” breached the seawall at the end of Seaward Avenue. In the footage, water pours into a parking lot and people are carried along in the surge. The fire department said eight people were taken to local hospitals. The monster wave occurred during high tide and when the National Weather Service had warned of unusually high surf.
"It was a combination of many factors that brought about that surge in Ventura and Ventura Harbor,” said Ariel Cohen, lead meteorologist with the weather service’s Los Angeles area office. "At the time of high tide, we had a tremendous amount of wave energy ... and the collection of all that energy resulted in a surge of water that extended into coastal Ventura. It was midday when this happened; the flooding was occurring at other points during the day as well.” Both Northern and Southern California have seen high surf this week, with waves at beaches reaching over 30 feet [9 meters]. Some locations such as Mavericks at Pillar Point in Half Moon Bay have seen waves up to 40 feet. On Thursday, the waves at Mavericks drew onlookers eager to see the massive surf. Surfer Magazine shared a video showing a sneaker wave crashing into people on the beach.
Another video captured by KSBW-TV showed kids soaked by waves in Santa Cruz. The weather service reshared the footage and used it as a warning to California residents.