ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. — King tides are making waves along Florida’s east coast. The unusually high tides have caused flooding in parts of St. Lucie County, prompting temporary closures of beach access points and a coastal flood advisory through Thursday.
WATCH CASSANDRA GARCIA'S COVERAGE BELOW:
Driving along Ocean Drive on Hutchinson Island you'll likely notice some flooded drainage ditches and swamped parking lots. These unusually high tides, known as king tides, typically occur this time of year.
“In fall, October, November, we see our tides that are higher than normal,” said our meteorologist, Sami Squires. “We get this extra pull with the new moon and a full moon, which causes the king tides.”
Squires explained that when the sun, moon, and Earth align, the gravitational pull causes water levels to rise as much as one to three feet above average.
“That could be flooding on people’s docks, that could be water just coming up a little higher than normal, so boaters can see the impacts as well as people along the beaches,” she added.
Two public beach access points in St. Lucie County have been closed as a result: Walton Rocks Beach and Ocean Bay Beachside Park.
“Some of it is not impassable, but Walton Rocks—there is about three-quarters of a mile entrance road in that is dirt, and so our concern is getting stuck,” said Erick Gill, communications director for St. Lucie County.
Officials say the issue isn’t just the king tides. Recent heavy rains have added to the flooding concerns, particularly around marshy areas.
“Those beach accesses—there’s mosquito impoundment marshes that have culverts that connect into the Indian River Lagoon, and so those high tides are bringing that water up,” Gill explained. “And with the wind and the rain we’ve had, a lot of that water is now going into the parking area and entrance roads.”
Squires also noted that the rainfall is intensifying the effects of the already high water.
“The flood advisory is due strictly to the king tides, but when we get this heavy rainfall that comes down on top of [what] you already are seeing—water that’s inundating our coastline—sometimes that could be hard to drain,” she said.
The National Weather Service’s coastal flood advisory will remain in effect through Thursday.
