Owners of North Shore homes on edge

A handful of oceanfront residents of Sunset Beach sweated out another anxiety-filled day Monday as high surf in combination with high tides continued to threaten homes above an eroded beach at Ke Nui Road.

Large waves out of the northwest actually pushed some new sand onto the beach Sunday and Monday, but the homes are far from being secure as they sit dangerously close to a newly carved cliff that drops 20 feet to the beach.

"A lot of the houses aren’t doing so good," said Kevin Emery, who lives in the back section of one of the threatened houses.

Emery said the home is now as close as three feet to the eroded cliff, and it’s making him nervous.

"It used to be about 30 feet, but now it’s down to just a couple and the house is in jeopardy of falling off the cliff," he said.

Officials described the situation as critical for most of the homes.

"It looked pretty bad out there," said Dolan Eversole, coastal storms program coordinator with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "A couple of foundations are exposed and are very severely threatened."

Waves as high as 10 to 15 feet broke at the Kammieland surf spot in front of the eroded stretch Monday, but the National Weather Service called off a high-surf advisory at 6 p.m. with waves expected to decrease to 6 to 10 feet along north-facing shores today.

The surf seems to have overwhelmed the large sandbags placed in front of the home of pro surfer Fred Patacchia Jr. over the weekend, and on Monday the waves helped prevent more work along the shore.

State officials are scheduled to inspect the beach today as well as advise homeowners about what else they can do to protect their properties.

Sam Lemmo, administrator of the state’s Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands, said so far at least four property owners have asked to place sandbags on the beach in front of their homes, and at least one other received permission to move sand collected from nearby Pau­malu Stream to the beach in front of his home.

The sand, moved and piled high on the beach, had yet to be transported in front of the homes because the surf and high tide made the operation too difficult, Lemmo said.

"(It’s) gonna be interesting to see what happens," Eversole said in an email Monday. "Sand is stockpiled at Pau­malu Stream for a temporary fix, but one swell could easily take out a foundation or two."

Unusually high tides may be largely responsible for the severe erosion at both Sunset Beach and Kuhio Beach in Waikiki, where the city postponed a beach replenishment project after newly moved sand was swept away by the waves.

Officials said tides three to six inches higher than normal have been recorded by NOAA over the past month, a phenomenon caused by a rare but occasional massive warm-water tidal bulge moving across the state. Officials said the higher tides are exacerbating erosion in vulnerable spots.

Eversole said the Sunset Beach homeowners need even more westerly swells to bring more sand back, but Lemmo said he doubts it will be enough to offer satisfactory protection considering how bad it’s gotten.

The residents have been consulting with coastal engineers about potential beach protection options, and it’s possible they could request permission to build a sea wall, Lemmo said. But that’s a measure of only last resort, he said, and they probably wouldn’t be allowed to build anything permanent.

A temporary shore protection structure could cost as much as $50,000, he said.

"If you see a train wreck coming, you’ve got to do something about the train wreck," Lemmo said.

Emery, a veteran surfer, said he couldn’t resist the waves Monday despite the tension on shore.

"The last two days we got some sand back, but in reality the homes there are not doing so good," he said. "They’re still looking at a straight drop."