Bay Area braces for flooding from king tides

MILL VALLEY, Calif. (KGO) -- The Bay Area is bracing for some of the year's highest tides this week.

The longest night of the year could be even longer for some people in low-lying parts of the Bay Area.

The high water is already causing flooding in Mill Valley. In Belmont, pipes are set up to help reduce flooding.

The high tides, also known as king tides, are expected late Sunday through Dec. 23.

Just days after flooding from storms caused chaos in parts of the North Bay, high water is back. The king tides are created new problems Sunday night.

"Sometimes it's entertaining, sometimes frustrating," Heidi Charles said.

Charles says 18 years of living on a houseboat has lost its charm. High king tides have made it impossible to leave home. "You live on a houseboat, you expect this lifestyle you know, but after a while it gets kind of frustrating. We have to wait off the dock, so everybody wears waders," Charles said.

Getting to Mill Valley was challenging Sunday. The Stinson Beach exit was closed when high king tides caused flooding. Caltrans crews shut down the Shoreline Highway after it vanished underwater.

A few bikers were brave enough to plow through.

Robert Frick got to work, but couldn't get home. "I'm trying to get into Mill Valley, but I think it's closed off. I think I can go north on the freeway. That's going to be my move," he said.

The water flooded the parking lot of the Holiday Inn Express and driving through it wasn't easy.

Dedicated postal worker Dante Acoba was just doing his job by getting holiday packages delivered.

Cornell: "Were you sure the truck could get through?"

Acoba: "You have to be very careful. We still have to go through."

Welder Andy Allen was cut off from his jobsite, so he put on rubber boots and hauled his welding tank through the water on a wagon. "I've painted myself into a corner, so I just have to get to work and this is how I'm doing it," he said.

King tides are a winter phenomenon lasting several days, caused by the gravitational pull of the sun and moon on the Earth. Experts say frequency of the tides may increase over the next 50 years.

Pilot Aaron Singer is trying to keep high tides out of his seaplane tour office, where there are a lot of water pumps working as fast as they can. In fact, they've been on duty for weeks when storms flooded parts of Highway 101 in early December. "We've got three pumps all over the place, sandbags everywhere, sandbags on the airplanes, you name it," Singer said.

Experts say it's a preview of what the Bay Area can expect as global warming causes sea levels to rise.

King tides are also expected in mid-January and mid-February.