SANTA CRUZ – Engineers continued to look at the structural integrity of the Santa Cruz Wharf on Tuesday, a day after white waves ripped a part of the 110-year-old wharf into Monterey Bay.
Santa Cruz officials didn’t provide a timetable for reopening town's landmark or any of the restaurants on it, citing turbulent surf that continued to pound considered one of the longest wood wharves on the West Coast. Meanwhile, parts of the wharf — in addition to the toilets that after stood near its western end — continued to rock and slosh offshore.
“There are many, many, multiple dynamic layers to what is being evaluated, from the beaches to the wharf structure itself,” said Mike Godsey, head of town’s parks and recreation department, adding that “public safety is obviously the primary goal .” ”
“Most likely it will be a long process,” he added. “Time will tell.”
The collapse added to an extended history of battering ocean waves and destroyed landmarks along the Monterey Bay coast known for its pristine beauty. It also brought recent dangers for restaurants and small businesses along the favored Santa Cruz attraction, as restaurants were forced to shut unexpectedly – and indefinitely – through the holiday season.
“Commercially, it will have a big impact,” said Duf Fischer, former president and adviser to the Santa Cruz Area Chamber of Commerce.
The collapse occurred around 12:45 p.m. Monday when about 150 feet of the wharf tore into the bay as powerful waves overwhelmed the structure. A public toilet and a part of the wharf that after housed the Dolphin Restaurant broke away and started floating nearby.
Due to wreck from a storm in December 2023, the world had been closed for repairs and construction. As a result, crews had already demolished The Dolphin restaurant, inbuilt the Sixties, to make room for repairs to missing and damaged poles. Construction was expected to be accomplished in March 2025.
Three staff inspecting the wharf fell into the choppy ocean waves when the tip of the wharf broke in two. Two of them were rescued by lifeguards, while the third person was capable of swim to safety, officials said.
The collapse surprised people eating and sightseeing on Monday and compelled them to flee while rescuers went into the water to rescue construction staff who had fallen in. Cody Wright, 29, of Folsom, remembered the flickering lights inside Stagnaro Bros. when he visited Former employees get a glimpse contained in the decades-old establishment. Then all of them ran outside.
“I looked down and there’s a bobcat dredge in the ocean,” Wright said. He watched in awe as the lavatory that was once on the dock floated to the mouth of the San Lorenzo River. The sight was particularly astonishing considering he had seen stronger storms hit the wharf – including one last yr that left the water within the Stagnaro Bros. aquarium sloshing “like a bathtub.”
“I think the waves hit it just right,” he said of the wharf collapse.
The destructive waves gave the impression to be the results of two powerful low-pressure systems within the Pacific Ocean, each of which had stalled recently, producing howling winds of over 60 miles per hour that kicked up ocean waves for 1000’s of miles, Golden Gate Weather said Service meteorologist, Jan Null. With nothing to push these low-pressure systems out of the ocean, winds off the coast of central California on Monday created sea waves that peaked every 20 to 26 seconds. “Normally such swellings are registered every 10 seconds,” said Null.
For many, Monday's collapse was nothing in need of “shocking.”
Opened in 1914, the Santa Cruz structure became the longest wood wharf on the West Coast by necessity since the waters of Monterey Bay near the Santa Cruz coast are shallow, said Ross Gibson, 69, historian for the Santa Cruz Sentinel. A railway line was also built on the wharf, which became the central berth for steamships to anchor and unload cargo and passengers.
After World War II, the wharf was transformed right into a tourist and dining attraction in addition to a hub for fishermen.
“It’s a main street in the middle of the ocean — a place where we enjoy our interaction with Monterey Bay,” Gibson said.
“For many years it was the center of the Italian fishing community, which gradually emerged after Cottardo Stagnaro left the ship as a cabin boy and discovered how much he loved this place,” Gibson added, referring to the patriarch and his family later opened and operates Stagnaro Bros. “It's a great loss for the entire community because we don't know how long these restaurants will be able to sustain themselves.”
Nevertheless, Null warned tourists and beachgoers to avoid the coast in the subsequent few days as swells and swells are still expected there.
“The pattern doesn’t really change,” Null said. “Stay away from the water. Think about how far away you want to be and make sure it’s twice as far away from the water.”
Originally published:
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