California’s Capitola Village Battered By Supercharged Storm Surge

This charming seaside village was ravaged Thursday by ferocious ocean swells that destroyed a 40-foot section of the historic Capitola Wharf, inundated the once-lively beachfront restaurants and flooded the picturesque painted bungalows that line the beach, ripping off the facade of one of them.

In the nearby beach town of Rio del Mar, waves carrying logs and debris crashed over a sea wall and bashed into a string of beachfront homes.

Roiling waves swallowed up more of the landmark cement ship and the pier leading to it, chronic victims of past storms. And at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk just up the coast, the raging San Lorenzo River that spills into the Pacific exposed the base of the Logger’s Revenge flume ride, washing away boulders that had protected it.

In Capitola, the gaping hole in the 855-foot pier completely cut off from shore the popular Wharf House restaurant perched at the end of it. Its fate remained perilous Thursday as powerful waves blasted fountains of whitewater between the timbers holding it up.