Rising surf and a fast-disappearing shoreline have forced the cancellation of a major music festival planned for Santa Monica, where The Killers, Olivia Dean and Jack White were due to perform.
The two-day Ocean Way Festival, scheduled for later this month on the city’s beachfront near Los Angeles, was called off after waves reaching up to 4.5 meters and storm runoff chewed through the sand and left the site too damaged to safely host crowds.
“Storm surf generated by Hurricane Marie and runoff from a storm drain outfall eroded a large portion of the festival site,” said a statement from the city of Santa Monica.
After a week of turbulent Pacific conditions, the city said the storm stripped away so much sand that the beach no longer meets safety requirements for an event expected to draw large numbers of people.
“The surf took the beach we planned this on, and we cannot put tens of thousands of festival-goers on that sand until it’s safe,” said Mayor Caroline Torosis.
Santa Monica — the official end point of Route 66 — is known for its broad ribbon of golden sand and its expansive wooden pier, a familiar backdrop in American television shows and movies.
The festival announcement landed amid a string of storm-related coastal incidents along Southern California. Days earlier, powerful surf carved out a huge sinkhole in the driveway of a beachfront home owned by Oscar-winning US actor Nicolas Cage.
In Malibu, just north of Santa Monica, officials ordered the evacuation of 31 homes because of the danger posed by the hole.
To the south, in Dana Point, at least seven homes were declared uninhabitable after rapid erosion undermined the coastline beneath them, with one house collapsing into the sea.
Nearby Laguna Beach has also reported similar coastal damage.
The Pacific has been roiled in recent weeks by a succession of tropical storms, some of which have strengthened into hurricanes.
Scientists say a near-record strength El Nino climate episode is warming ocean waters and adding volatility to conditions at sea.
While El Nino is part of a natural cycle, human-caused climate change is thought to be super-charging the heating and exacerbating its effects.
