The record high tides seen around the Bay Area are causing quite a concern for many living on the water.
For houseboat residents in Sausalito, getting in and out of their homes was a challenge as water flooded parking lots and blocked access to the docks. Residents had to walk through the water with rain boots to get in and out of their neighborhood.
"I've been here 32 years and I've never seen a tide come up this high, ever," resident Court Mast said.
Residents were glued to a smartphone app created by a neighbor to track the conditions in this specific neighborhood.
"This high tide at 1:07 would have been 6.6," Mast said. "But functionally what we are seeing is an 8.1. So, we have a foot and a half more water than we are used to seeing right now."
Meteorologists say the strong El Niño in the Pacific Ocean is leading to thermal expansion, causing higher high tides and elevated sea levels. While the flooded-out parking lot is a big concern, Mast is worried about what could happen to him and his neighbors as storms, some potentially enhanced by El Niño, roll in this winter.
Mast is also concerned this whole area could lose power. This round of high tides has already come dangerously close to the community's emergency water system. If the water rises just over a foot more, it will soak the power line leading to each home.
"Those connections from the underground cables to the houseboats," he said. "If those start to get inundated with salt water, the whole place will shorten out."
Mast has added an extra sleeve on the piling that holds his houseboat in place, but not all his neighbors took similar measures. These homes were built to float but if the water level goes up too high, the worst case scenario is that these homes will float away.
"If there's a piling, we have a collar that goes around it," he said. "So, as the house moves up and down, it will be able to accommodate the height. But there is a top to this and in some of them, they're fairly low and what you don't want the collar to come off and the house to float away."
Mast says the only thing he can do is to be as prepared as he can for this winter. But if this recent high tide is a sign of things to come, it's going to be a challenge just to get in and out of his home.
"When the real storms start to happen, there are going to be more stretches where it's going to be inaccessible," he said.
