The weekend’s record-breaking tides caused some coastal flooding in Larkspur along Lucky Drive and Redwood Highway, as well as throughout Corte Madera’s Golden Hind Passage neighborhood.
Water also flooded the sidewalk and spilled into the street in San Francisco near Pier 14 on the Embarcadero, disrupting pedestrian and cyclist traffic.
Meteorologist Rachel Kennedy said the weather service is predicting some isolated road and parking lot closures, especially along the Marin County shoreline and coastal Sonoma County.
Jamie and her son, Rowan, stand outside their home beside road closure signs staged for potential flooding along Golden Hind Passage in Corte Madera on June 15, 2026. Residents in low-lying neighborhoods were advised to prepare for king tide flooding through June 16. (Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)
“If you’re driving in those areas, [make] sure that you have an alternate route ready to go in the event that your normal path is encountering some coastal flooding, or you’re going to park in a parking lot that’s now got some flooding going on in it,” she said.
Jaime Kelly, 48, who’s lived in the Golden Hind Passage neighborhood in Marin County for more than 20 years, said this weekend was the first time her home has flooded in the summer, without significant rainfall.
“It’s definitely gotten worse since we first moved in 2002,” she told KQED. “It would happen maybe once every few years, and it might come up over the sidewalk or something, but the last couple years, it’s come up higher and higher.”
During January’s record-setting king tides, which peaked at 2.5 feet above normal after multiple particularly wet weeks, she said water seeped into her and her husband’s garage for the first time.
Residents are increasingly taking protective measures into their own hands. On Monday, nearby construction crews were busy raising the foundation of one of Kelly’s neighbor’s homes, and Kelly said she and her husband recently opted to install a new fence around their garden as a way to protect it from flooding.
The tides are driven by the phases of the moon, according to Kennedy, usually peaking around the new moon, which happened Sunday. Water levels have historically risen the highest in the winter months, but meteorologists said at the time that extreme tides could become more common as the climate changes.
The Bay Area’s water levels have risen nearly 2 millimeters per year on average over the past three decades, and the ocean and the bay could rise by about a foot by 2050 — and more than 6 feet by the end of the century.
Neighbors who live at slightly lower elevations, Kelly said, can sometimes be up to their knees in seawater in their garages.
John Breidenbaugh, who was visiting his daughter’s home in Golden Hind, said that her garage had upwards of seven inches of water in it during Sunday night’s peak tide. The house effectively became an island.
Plastic sheeting and sandbags are placed outside a home along Golden Hind Passage, as residents prepare for potential king tide flooding, in Corte Madera, on June 15, 2026. (Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)
“This lot is a bit below high sea level, unfortunately,” he told KQED. “They’ve lost some stuff because they weren’t as diligent as they should be, but they’re learning fast.”
Breidenbaugh was drying out the garage with a fan Monday and said the family was going to line it with some polyethylene plastic sheeting before the tides are expected to rise again overnight.
The family has learned to keep everything in the garage, from a baby stroller to the washer and dryer, off the floor. Seawater remained pooled along the curb of his daughter’s house late into the morning.
“It’ll flood again tonight, so we’ll be doing this again tomorrow,” he said.
A home along Golden Hind Passage is raised above its foundation in Corte Madera on June 15, 2026. Some homeowners are elevating structures as part of long-term efforts to adapt to recurring tidal flooding. (Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)
Longer term, he said the family was planning to install a sump — a basin dug in a basement that drains water — in the garage, and considering building up perimeter walls around the property.
“We’re helping them figure this property out and get it armored against the water,” he said. “We’ll figure it out. It might take a few years.”
Corte Madera Mayor Rosa Thomas said her office is also looking at solutions to protect the entire town. In January, sea water reached freeways, and spilled over levees, bike trails and into homes and businesses.
Thomas said they’re hoping to build berms, or raised mounts of earth and soil material that slope, to keep water out.
Rosa Thomas, mayor of Corte Madera, poses for a portrait in Corte Madera on June 15, 2026. (Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)
Corte Madera has a system of flood gates and pumps, Thomas said, but “when the tides are as high as they were back in January, there’s nowhere for the water to go.”
Corte Madera does have a FEMA-funded berm project in the pipeline, but Thomas said it’s been stalled under the Trump administration.
In the meantime, she said, they’re looking at building temporary, inflatable berms ahead of next winter, when California is expecting stormier, wetter weather thanks to what could be a strong El Niño season. The arrival of the weather pattern likely means more intense atmospheric rivers, major snow events in the Sierra Nevada, and larger waves, coastal flooding, and higher sea levels.
“The next big tidal flooding that we’re expecting is going to probably be around January [or] December of this year, so we were looking at how we can best be ready for that,” she said.
