SLO County creek flooded in 2023 storms. Here’s the plan to fix it
When an atmospheric river storm descended on Morro Bay in 2023, floodwaters barreled down Morro Creek — crashing into its banks and carrying soil into the ocean.
Flooding combined with a king tide eroded 80 feet of the south bank of the creek just upstream from the Embarcadero pedestrian bridge, city engineer Nate Stong said.
The erosion threatened to wash out a fence beside the creek, the road, and three buildings rented by commercial fisheries, the Coast Guard and the Harbor Department, he said. The city was also concerned about a segment of Vistra’s property that has an easement for future city pipelines and injection wells for the water-recycling program.
“The erosion was within 1 foot of the fence, and so any further erosion would have started to eat away infrastructure,” he said.
To fix the erosion, the Morro Bay City Council declared an emergency on Nov. 12, 2025, authorizing the city to embark on a project to restore the creek bank.
As part of the project, the city installed massive boulders and topsoil in a 30-foot-wide, 250-feet-long segment of the eroded bank. The city then planted willow trees and other native vegetation to anchor the boulders and soil to the creek bank.
The city also placed root wads from downed trees about every 50 feet in the creek to slow the flow of the water.
Construction started on April 2 and was expected to be completed within about a week and a half, Stong said.
Next time floodwater rushes through the creek, the boulders and vegetation will slow the flow of the water and prevent it from washing soil away so rapidly.
This southwestern portion of Morro Creek isn’t the only segment that experienced severe flooding in 2023.
The creek overflowed near the Main Street bridge, flooding businesses on Main Street and homes at Silver City West Mobile Home Park.
To prevent future devastation in that area, the city secured a $1.4 million hazard mitigation grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to analyze the watershed and determine what projects are needed to mitigate flooding along the creek, Stong said.
In January, the city selected Still Water Sciences as the contractor to complete the analysis.
