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One person is dead and at least one other is missing after large waves hammered the California coastline Monday amid a high surf warning.
First responders were called to Sunset State Beach, a state park in Watsonville, around 11:30 a.m. Monday for a report of a man trapped under debris, according to reporting from CBS News and SF Gate. The Santa Cruz County Sherriff’s Office believes a large wave pinned him there.
The man was rescued and taken to the hospital, here he later died, according to reports.
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a USA TODAY request for comment.
About 30 minutes south, at Marina State Beach, Marina police and fire personnel responded to a water rescue incident around noon Monday, according to a news release from the Marina Police Department.
Initial reports indicated that an adult male had been “overcome by high surf and pulled into the water,” according to police. Bystanders attempted to help the individual, but they could not rescue them due to large waves and strong currents, police said.
Marina police said an “extensive search” was conducted with assistance from the Coast Guard and the California Highway Patrol Air Unit, and despite those efforts, the individual was not located. The search was suspended around 2 p.m. as “worsening conditions were deemed too dangerous to continue,” police said. The person’s name was not released and the case is under investigation.
Heavy surf causes a Santa Cruz pier to partially collapse, sending 3 people into the water
A portion of a pier in Santa Cruz collapsed into the Pacific Ocean on Monday, sending three city workers into the sea after high surf slammed the coast.
The Wharf, a public pier, is home to several restaurants in Santa Cruz, about 70 miles south of San Francisco. The pier was evacuated and closed to all emergency responders just after 1 p.m.
High surf caused part of the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf, or pier, to collapse, with lifeguards rescuing two people from the water afterward.
Two city workers were rescued by lifeguards and the third rescued themselves, according to reporting by the Salinas Californian, part of the USA TODAY Network.
Construction crews for the city were tearing down a restaurant located on the Wharf, which had been damaged in a storm surge last December, when the collapse occurred, eyewitnesses shared with local CBS affiliate KION-TV.
The damaged section of the pier was closed to the public due to previous storm damage and no members of the public were present when the collapse occurred.
Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at Gdhauari@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Huge waves hit California coast, Santa Cruz, leaving 1 dead: reports
