1983

El Niño Carpinteria, California

The friends you see in this book appeared like magic. Their moral support was invaluable. Over the course of 5 traumatic days, we took care of demolition and prepared for continuous storms. It was a labor of love. Later, with their assistance, we tackled repairs and rebuilding. I am eternally grateful to each and every one.

Doris McCloskey

o ñ i N l E tle One" in it L e h "T g in (mean to s tendency it r o f h is n a Sp tmas) is is r h C d n u o r arrive a indling, w d a y b d e characteriz s even a or sometime rade winds. reversal of t inds blow w e h t y ll a m Nor t across the s e w o t t s a e cific. These southern Pa l along the e v a r t s d in w a and bring e s e h t f o e surfac water along e c a f r u s m r wa rn o the weste t m e h t h it w coasts.

designed by Andy Neuman

construction completed 1978

The calm before the storm....

backyard before the storm

the debate table

the ocean in my yard

this palm tree survived

here it comes!

oh my gawd!

view from my balcony

Mike Drammer, Eddie Gibson and David Lelande

David Lelande

look at the waves!

Tim Mulcahy keeping watch

run Tim run!

sea wall 15 ft. wide at base

sea wall

erosion and water path to the backyard

replacing sea wall rocks...

av

er

ic k

...not an easy job

M

Archie Howe, Kimmie and Dave Wilkinson

the backyard

Archie Howe, Dave Wilkinson, Dave Lelande, Kimmie and John Annable

Kimmie, Jessica, Dave Wilkinson

Dave Wilkinson, Sharon and Butch

Dave Lelande and Jessica Stevens

Dave and Doris Mya Thornburgh, Jessica Stevens, Matt Stevens, and Dave

"I'm not in Bakersfield anymore!"

Chipper, Willy Norlan, John Annable, Ed Clark, Dave Wilkinson, Dave Lelande, Eddie Gibson

"does this make my butt look BIG?"

Steve Whitney's amphibious command car

Perfect El Niño transportation

to the rescue

delivering supplies

cheers

Mike Drammer, Dickie Miller, Sharon, David, Dave, Anny, John, Kimmie and Mary Smith

my deck neighbor's house

Mac Brown's early excavation days off the tractor

Rocks from the sea wall washed onto the deck under the neighbor's house, the deck had to ultimately be removed because more storms were on their way.

Monster Mike cleaning up!

we boarded the windows to protect from these cobbles

the beach looked like this for a few years

these cobbles were picked up by the ocean and slammed against glass windows

fishing off the side walkway

"here comes one!"

pier and post of the neighbor's guest house

ready for round 2

windows all boarded up, ready for the storm

We were "officially" told it was time to evacuate

Disaster relief at The Nugget

waiting for round 2

safety meeting

"...aren't you going to use a glass, Dave?"

chow time

Mary & Archie

"Where's Willie?"

Kimmie & Dickie

the neighbor's house full of rocks...

...more rocks...

...and more rocks.

debris

view from my front door looking over balcony

this fence is where the cement wall is now

outdoor shower

slightly tilted?

boulder came all the way up to the steps

broken limbs

all boarded up...

Mac (aka Maverick)

siding off breakfast nook didn't make it, pushed up the floor of the balcony bye bye deck

water under the deck

view of water erosion between my place and the neighbors, deck lodged under corner of neighbor's foundation

side deck torn away

the boulder was originally here

blue paint on the rock came from the railing

5 grown men, 1 boulder, no equipment

the boulder ended up on my deck

the swell carried the boulder to the railing where it picked up the blue paint

pier & missing post for deck

this is where the deck used to be

the path of the boulder

siding from debate table torn away

you can see the deck under the neighbor's foundation

this is the neighbor's house, with my deck underneath it

deck being removed from under the neighbor's house

wave splashing on my side ramp, Mike Drammer and Mac "whaaat?"

Heave Ho!

hauled the deck to the street and removed the nails

path between homes decimated

Tom Rickard & Eddie Gibson

hybrid bermuda withstood the storm better than the cement

the only room in the whole house where water came in

debris entered through the exterior bathroom door

Archie & Kimmie The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh.

what did Doris say?

that was a stinker!

I've lost count.

keep looking up... that's the secret of life.

"I always said she had a mattress on her back!"

we survived!

Jerry Walker & David Lelande (our dancing entertainment)

I think your barn door is open!

beer pong anyone?

Me and my heros...

when the world comes to an end....

...we play airplane.

new cement wall

we made it!

6 ft down

just another shitty day in paradise...

construction zone

you could drive a truck to the beach

construction crew

my working man...

"Patches" went everywhere!

old wooden fence

new cement wall

my house is behind this home

view from south

devastation many homes did not survive Edward's old house

clean up

to the left of us (facing the beach)

view from the balcony

flat rock rolled out of wall, brought to front of house, see how low in the ground Mac is

Mother Nature

full force

OLD SEA WALL hybrid bermuda with 2-foot network of root held ground better than concrete terraces which were undermined, cracked and had to be removed.

... . . .... .. .. . . .

.. . . . ..

. . . . . . . . . . . ..

the bermuda held STRONG see red dotted line above . . . . . . . . .

I created this book because I wanted to be sure this piece of history was not forgotten. I lived through this storm, and want to preserve the photos that we took before, during, and after to remind others how powerful our ocean can be. Thanks to Ashley DeVan for working with me to restore my photographs and making this book possible. Doris McCloskey

. . . s w e n l a c o L

The Santa Barbara Yacht Club was built on a sandy beach but in the winter of 1983 all of the sand was removed by the global El Niño.

The Santa Barbara Harbor was closed for six weeks, in March 1983, and had thirteen million dollars of damage. During the 1982-83 event the cost to California was more than 300 million dollars with 10,000 people being evacuated and 12 deaths.

Published December 12, 2019 by Sam Hill

Exotic species stay after El Niño. During the '82/'83 El Niño a group of bottlenose dolphins moved up the coast of California from the Los Angeles area. They continued to stay in the area above Los Angeles (near Ventura and Santa Barbara) even after the El Niño disappeared and remain there today. This group of dolphins is a range extension for the coastal bottlenose dolphin. Before '82/'83 there was not a resident population in the Ventura/Santa Barbara area but they are here now and have remained healthy and are reproducing. They are a common sight along the freeway that runs between Ventura and Santa Barbara as they often play in the waves that are easily seen along this stretch of coastline.

The Oceanic Niño Index (ONI) has become the de-facto standard that NOAA uses for identifying El Niño (warm) and La Niña (cool) events in the tropical Pacific. It is the running 3month mean SST anomaly for the Niño 3.4 region (i.e., 5oN-5oS, 120o-170oW). Events are defined as 5 consecutive overlapping 3-month periods at or above the +0.5o anomaly for warm (El Niño) events and at or below the -0.5 anomaly for cold (La Niña) events. The threshold is further broken down into Weak (with a 0.5 to 0.9 SST anomaly), Moderate (1.0 to 1.4), Strong (1.5 to 1.9) and Very Strong (≥ 2.0) events. For the purpose of this report for an event to be categorized as weak, moderate, strong or very strong it must have equaled or exceeded the threshold for at least 3 consecutive overlapping 3-month periods.

printed December 2021