Six homes have been red-tagged and two others have received yellow tags as Dana Point officials Tuesday monitor the aftermath of heavy rains caused by Hurricane Marie this weekend.
The high tides and swells from the hurricane hammered homes in the Capistrano Bay District community on Beach Road.
Officials are bracing for another high tide Tuesday night. City officials are on site inspecting the damage and advising residents when they need to leave their homes.
Coastal Commission staff, who are responsible for issuing Emergency Coastal Development Permits, are working overtime to help residents get services, officials said.
Officials are using boulders as a layer of protection for the wave-whipped homes.
Orange County Board Vice Chair Katrina Foley visited the residents Tuesday afternoon to assess the damage and help provide services.
Foley noted that the homeowners who have piers are in better position to withstand the waves.
“Those homes, their decks aren’t washing away,” foley said. “Their bigger concern is water going underneath the homes.”
But “those homes built on the sand in the 1950s — those homes are just trashed,” Foley said. “One house was completely demolished.”
Foley said she was on hand to “be supportive, to try to help expedite things and really just help residents navigate what is obviously a frustrating bureaucracy.”
Foley said county officials have been working on plans to replenish sand on the beaches to protect the coast.
“If we had a deeper beach the wave action wouldn’t be coming up so close to the homes and dissipate much further out,” Foley said. “We have to make that a priority if we want to protect our coast.”
Foley said county officials will “continue to be a resource” to the residents “and advocate for streamlining the permitting and helping people to get the permits they need to protect their homes and work on long-term solutions with sand replenishment.”