Ocean Shores has declared a citywide state of emergency after a weekend of storms tore away more than 800 feet of the city's dynamic revetment berm, knocked out power to municipal buildings, and pushed server-room temperatures high enough to threaten public safety communications. Mayor Frank Elduen signed Emergency Proclamation No. 2026-02 on Monday, November 9, as crews scrambled to assess damage along multiple shoreline streets and keep city systems running through outages that began with storm conditions on November 6.
Berm Losses Concentrated on Four Streets
The scale of the erosion was stark: the city lost in excess of 800 feet of its dynamic revetment berm, according to The Daily World. Among the most severely impacted areas are the shorelines near Marine View Drive, Neptune Way, Mariner Court SE and Peninsula Court SE, the outlet reported, echoing the seed account from KOMO News, which said wind-driven waves and elevated water levels deteriorated shorelines, threatening nearby homes, private property, and public infrastructure, according to the city.
City officials say they are assessing the damage and coordinating with outside agencies and engineering professionals on possible emergency stabilization work, permitting, and funding, per KOMO's reporting. The storms also affected previous shoreline stabilization efforts already underway in the area, the station noted.
Power Failures Threatened City Servers
Beyond the shoreline, the emergency proclamation points to a parallel crisis inside city hall. Prolonged electrical outages and power fluctuations have affected municipal facilities, equipment, and critical technology infrastructure, the same Daily World report states. The loss of cooling during those outages pushed up temperatures within the city's server room, according to the city, putting systems that support public safety communications, utility billing, and records management at risk.
To respond, the city pulled together Public Works, Police, Fire, Information Technology, Finance, and other municipal departments under the emergency declaration, per the same account. The proclamation itself authorizes immediate emergency response measures meant to protect public health and safety, safeguard public and private property, stabilize damaged infrastructure, and maintain essential municipal services, the station's report notes.
City Will Track Costs for Possible Reimbursement
City officials say the Finance Department will separately document and track emergency-related expenses — including overtime, equipment, repairs, contracts, and technology restoration, according to KOMO — to support financial accountability, insurance claims, and applications for disaster assistance. Those records will be kept apart from routine city spending, per the Daily World's reporting.
With continuing power outages affecting homes and businesses, the city opened a warming shelter at the Ocean Shores Lions Club, 832 Ocean Shores Blvd. NW, KOMO reported. Officials urged residents and visitors to stay away from affected shorelines, unstable embankments, and restricted areas, warning that erosion or storm damage may have made those zones hazardous.
More Wind and Flooding Threats on the Way
The storm system has not finished with the coast. A wind advisory took effect Tuesday at 1 p.m. and runs through Wednesday at 7 p.m., with southeast winds of 20 to 30 mph and gusts up to 50 mph expected along the coastline, per the Daily World. The city is also expecting 11-foot tides, with additional king tides forecast for November 23–27 and again December 22–25.
Separately, the National Weather Service in Seattle issued a coastal flood advisory for the Northern Washington Coast and Grays Harbor County Coast valid from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday, according to The News Tribune. The agency said inundation of 1.5 to 2 feet above ground level is possible along shorelines and low-lying coastal areas, and warned that logs and debris piled on beaches and jetties by the weekend's high surf would pose additional hazards and exacerbate coastal erosion.
A Recurring Fight Against the Tide
This is not the first time Ocean Shores has declared an emergency over its eroding shoreline. In February 2025, Mayor Elduen declared a citywide emergency to implement measures to mitigate severe erosion damage along the same Mariner Court SE and Peninsula Court SE corridors, with that proclamation set to remain in effect until terminated by a subsequent written order, per the Daily World's earlier coverage. Months before that, the city had published plans in January 2025 to replace its south-shore sand berm with a roughly 2,800-foot cobble berm extending toward the Ocean Shores Marina after storms showed the sand berm was not a sustainable measure to prevent or take care of the erosion issues — a roughly $688,000 project funded through U.S. Department of Commerce grants.
Even earlier, in December 2023, the city identified Neptune Way as its area of greatest erosion risk and built a temporary sacrificial sand berm there, about 350 feet long and 5 to 10 feet high, describing the move as a short-term measure intended to get the city through the winter while medium- and longer-term solutions were sought. A 2023 shoreline assessment commissioned by the city, covering Oyhut Bay, found that erosion is now encroaching on infrastructure and private property and continues to erode critical habitat. Around the same time, the city also planned a temporary sand berm on its southern shoreline to protect roads, a water tank, and a nearby freshwater lake from high tides and winter storms, as reported by The Spokesman-Review.
The pattern lines up with broader regional warnings. An October report from KUOW said Pacific Northwest shoreline communities could face severe coastal flooding in November, December, and January as potentially record-breaking El Niño conditions arrive on top of the year's highest tides, known as king tides — a forecast that now overlaps directly with Ocean Shores' latest declared emergency.
