NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — Newport Beach resident Bill Sharp has seen his share of flooding in his six decades on the Balboa Peninsula.

During past El Niño seasons, residents have been known to swap their cars for canoes and paddle boards to get around the peninsula after storms and high tides.

But the record-breaking tides this week took even Sharp by surprise.

Seawater from Newport Harbor surged over sea walls and flowed onto city streets, inundating homes and businesses.

The tide was so high that the Balboa Island Ferry, which has shuttled cars between Balboa Island and the Peninsula for more than 100 years, had to temporarily suspend operations.

“It’s crazy. We’ve somehow added two feet of water to the normal sea level,” Sharp said. “Basically nothing in the city was built to deal with an eight and a half foot tide.”

A full moon on Monday converged with warmer than normal waters to ramp up high tides in Southern California. Ocean temperatures have been affected not only by human-caused climate change but also an El Niño-fueled Kelvin wave that brings warmer water from the equatorial Pacific Ocean up and down the coast of the Americas, and a months-old marine heat wave unrelated to El Niño.

Scientists say this marine heat wave has caused seawater levels to rise 1.25 to 1.8 feet higher than they would be just from the movement of the moon, Earth and sun.

Other coastal communities including Redondo Beach, Huntington Beach and Long Beach also experienced flooding, and officials say it could get much worse as El Niño hits its peak this winter.

But Newport Beach has been particularly hard hit, and both residents and city officials are having to rethink their relationship with the ocean. It’s become a battle in which the weapons are sandbags, water pumps, sand berms and drainage canals. These tools have shown signs of success, but officials admit they remain at the mercy of the tides.

The Balboa Peninsula’s topography has made it vulnerable to a host of issues during El Niño.

“We have the beach on one side and the bay on the other...we’re just pinched in between. And generally it’s just a beautiful thing,” Sharp said. “But every so often Mother Nature comes to collect some tax.”

On Tuesday, the high tide, which was predicted to be 6.7 feet, rose to a whopping 8.4 feet in Newport Beach, the highest the city has ever seen. Tuesday’s high tide also toppled another all-time record in San Pedro, which had broken its record the day before. A preliminary high tide of 8.19 feet was recorded at 9:48 a.m. on Tuesday, the National Weather Service said, sending water rushing onto the International Boardwalk in Redondo Beach and Marine Stadium in Long Beach.

For coastal communities this could be the beginning of a long winter season. Even higher tides are expected around the Thanksgiving, Christmas and Martin Luther King Jr. Day holidays and if a strong storm arrives during those times, it could result in even more severe flooding.

If not for the drone and rumble of multiple water pumps and torrent of water seeping through the sandbags and the buildings, Tuesday morning would have been a perfect time to visit the Fun Zone on the Peninsula. A clear blue sky, warm weather — but not too hot — and a colorful assortment of American kitsch to keep the family entertained.

But the reality was that the city was on a war footing, a four-foot wall of sand and rows of sandbags blocking off an ocean determined to reach the sidewalks nonetheless.

Henk Wiessner, owner of the charter boat company Fun Zone Boat, stood outside his office in flip flops as the water poured out the door of his company’s one-room office and onto his feet and the paws of his 12-year old Jack Russell terrier, Butters.

For Wiessner, 60, the flooding wasn’t just about livability, but livelihood. The city‘s seawall blocked access to his dock, and he was trying to figure out another option, whether a neighboring business or the city, could let him use theirs.

Although he’s frustrated by the impact on his business, Wiessner said he understands what needs to be done. A day earlier he sat in his office looking out onto the pavilion when he saw a rush of water coming down.

“Five minutes later, it was everywhere,” he said.

And he knows this is not the worst of it, with more potentially record-breaking tides expected later in the year.

Outside the Fun Zone, black sandbags were stacked up along the peninsula’s vast network of seawalls, giving them a few more inches of protection from the rising tide. Sandbags aren’t waterproof, but they can help slow the flow of water so the dozens of pump trunks the city deployed can keep up with the overflow.

“Everything the city has prepared is working,” said Newport Beach Councilman Joe Stapleton. “Where we’re seeing any breaches or failures it’s on commercial or private residential property. Everyone has to do their part.”

The city had been trying to get the word out to residents ahead of the high tides that they should shore up their seawalls to protect not only their own homes but those around them, Stapleton said.

Officials have long known the height of the city’s historic seawalls and bulkheads, which were built in the early to mid-1900s, would not hold up to rising tides. The city has been upgrading segments of seawalls over the years to reduce seawater overtopping, but much of its harbor-front property remains under threat.

Mark Vukojevic, the city’s director of utilities, was deployed to the famous “Pirate House” near Marcus and 35th streets Tuesday morning after hearing reports the house had been flooded.

The city had sent out volunteers to knock on people’s doors, asking them to build seawalls using anything they had, including sandbags provided by the city, or wood, Vukojevic said. The people living right up against the water were the last and only line of defense preventing water from coming in.

For the most part, the peninsula has handled the high tide well, he said. But there were exceptions.

A few houses down from the pirate house, festooned with pirate mannequins with parrots, swords and treasure, a more ordinary property had apparently failed to build up a wall, allowing water through their back porch and into the street.

“I think people underestimate the power of high tides,” Vukojevic said.

Near the end of the Balboa Peninsula, visitors and locals gathered at the Public Pier to gawk at the surreal sight of water lapping closer to the sidewalk than they had ever seen before.

“Sandbags are doing great,” Tim Hogan, 78, said to a friend passing him on the sidewalk.

The surf was relatively calm, Hogan remarked, and the water pouring down the street and into the storm drains was far from a deluge. But the 37-year peninsula resident said he was worried about what was to come in the months ahead.

Whether severe storms will materialize this winter remains an unanswered question.

Despite the uncertainty, Sharp said one thing is clear: “I can guarantee you no one is moving because of this, but we’re keeping our sandbags ready.”

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