Save Newport Real News in Newport Beach
On Thursday September the 29th, Madi McNaughton and her 150lb pup Rupert were playing near the Newport Dog Beach. As they passed out of the proposed (still not official) Dog Beach and into the Flood Control Zone, everything seemed fine– but the safety gates normally on the tidal flood gates had somehow fallen off, and disaster was set to strike.
The tidal flood gates are used to prevent the Santa Ana river from overflowing and/or changing course when a tidal surge comes in from the ocean. They drain the excess water to low-lying lands until the tide goes back down, and then the tide gates work in reverse to drain the storage areas.
The tidal floodgates have grates on either side to prevent debris and animals from being sucked through to the other side. However, on this particular day, one side of the gates was missing. As the tide surged and the last ball was thrown for Rupert, he was swept up in a large tide surge and made his way through the gate. As McNaughton tried to rescue him, she was overcome with water and had to let him go. Due to the gate still being on the other side of the fence, Rupert was trapped and sadly died in a horrible and tragic freak accident.
Determined to not allow this to happen again, Madi’s friends started a social media campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of being in the Flood Control Zone on Friday. On Saturday, I contacted OC Supervisor Michelle Steel and SaveNewporter Jon Pedersen contacted other county officials to let them know of this horrible event. Talking shop on weekends is reserved for only the most important events, so this tells us just how seriously the county is taking it.
Thursday, the tragedy happened
Friday, the social media campaign began, and the county pulled the pre-made gate plans from storage in order to craft another one.
Saturday, the county put up caution tape in the meantime.
Sunday, I was assured that this would be the first thing that Supervisor Steel would be looking into on Monday morning.
The county is moving mountains to get this fixed as quickly as possible, and I give them high commendations for this. So how did this go unchecked for so long? Well, the inspection of the area was actually occurring at the exact same time as the tragedy struck, and the grate had just been replaced 10 months earlier, so there are very few natural reasons for the grate to be missing, but the county will attempt to figure out what happened after immediately correcting the current dangerous situation.
I do not want to minimize the loss or place blame here, but there are a few things that need clarification from the media coverage that this is receiving, calling this “Dog Beach” is incorrect, as this incident did not happen at the proposed Dog Beach. It happened in the actual flood control zone. This is a dangerous area for this exact reason, and it is illegal for people to be down there. Everyone who goes to Dog Beach has seen these signs– please take them to heart to avoid a tragedy like this one.
While it is technically illegal to be in the Flood Control Zone, the floodgates have grates on them to help prevent this tragedy. In this case, the grate had been replaced 10 months earlier. It is doubtful that initial conclusions of saltwater exposure are the culprits of its disappearance, and what is more likely is that drug addicts attempted to steal it for scrap– something that only would have netted them a few dollars. Some media reports have cited a lack of county action as being a problematic thing. Let’s be extremely clear: The county of Orange has been extremely responsive to this. Any insinuations to the contrary are either ill informed or intentionally misleading. This happened Thursday, the social media kicked in full-effect mid/late Friday, and the county has had exactly one working day since they were notified, and so far, they are working very swiftly.
We’ll cover the exact status of Dog Beach on Thursday morning– the area we have been fighting city, county, state, and federal governments over– for a year now. We have good news on that front and while this event is tragic and the grates need to be added (and they are being added), I do not want to conflate an issue with an outside-of-dog-beach tragedy with the actual dog beach. It is not an honest or accurate comparison by the media and it harms our fight to legalize a place for our off-leash dogs.
A sincere thank-you is deserved for all the activists who came out to get this tragedy the attention it needed to get resolved immediately. It worked, and you may have all saved another life by voicing your concerns. Thank you, and I am extremely glad that this is being resolved so quickly thanks to your activism.
