Chuck Fisher runs the Ocean Beach Pier Café, but it's closed now because the pier has been shut down.
“It’s that time of year where waves get high and they knocked off some of the railing out there, and kind of hit a couple of doors. It’s not really bad, but there’s a lot of damage out there,” Fisher said.
The storms that have visited San Diego are part of an atmospheric river. More than one, in fact, said climate scientist Julie Kalansky of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
“We often refer to them as atmospheric river ‘families’ ... that they’ve been coming back to back,” Kalansky said.
Denny Knox, executive director of the Ocean Beach Main Street Association, said the Ocean Beach Pier is so iconic that most businesses have a picture of it in their logo. But she said studies have shown the railings and the pilings won't last much longer.
“I’d love to see it replaced with something that pays attention to what we’ve had before, but new in ways we haven’t even thought of yet,” Knox said.
One thing engineers should think of, if they replace the pier, are rising sea levels, which is a result from global warming. Kalansky said rising sea levels will have a greater impact on structures like the Ocean Beach Pier.
Kaslansky said it’s important to consider climate change projection and trends when rebuilding. The result could reveal several aspects that could mitigate impacts in similar coastal areas.
San Diego officials have determined that, given the pier's deterioration, rehabilitation is no longer possible and needs to be replaced. The cost of replacing the pier is estimated to be $60-$100 million.
