Laguna Beach will be closed for diving for the holidays. The major storms that hit the coast on December 21st and 22nd made landfall on Laguna. For two days, Pacific Coast Highway and California Highway 133 were closed to traffic, cutting us from Laguna Beach.

Some residents had to be evacuated and the whole canyon area was flooded with a few houses suffering major damages.

The whole downtown area was flooded and the sandbags did not really prevent the water from entering most of the shops there.

On the 24th, one day before Christmas, downtown was reopened for the public. The store owners were relieved that they might get at least one day of Christmas shopping!

Walking around the city on Christmas' eve, the scars of the flood were still visible. Main Beach was covered in debris but that did not prevent people from sun bathing or play beach volley! The signs posted warning of high bacteria level due to the storm drains pouring into the Pacific did not deter a few kids from running in the runoffs... But still, the Oriental Rugs shop on Ocean Boulevard was dumping soaked rugs to a parked truck and the interior of the shop was covered with mud. The Marine Room on the same street was open for business but smelled of mud. One of my favorite eatery in Laguna, the Brussels Bistro paid a high price for its cellar look: located one story below the ground, it seemed to have suffered pretty hard and was being cleaned and dried when I walked by.

I captured some of these moments and I thought they would convey more emotion in black & white, so here they are...