ORANGE COUNTY – An Orange County tornado alert has been joined by a flooding alert. The Orange County tornado alert today was extended after initially issued until 1:30 pm for areas of Seal beach, Huntington Beach, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Anaheim and Costa Mesa.

Terry Belanger, Seal Beach’s interim public works director, says of the tornado to Contra Costa Times:

“The first rains (Monday) pretty much flushed the streets and there were no serious problems. It was pretty routine actually. But we’re told the weather activity later this week is going to be more severe, especially by the ocean so we’re gearing up for the anticipated storms Thursday and Friday.”

“Between now and (Thursday) we’re going to be prepared as we can be. Seal Beach puts in a sand berm on its eastern beach to keep tidal water out of the residences that front the beach. “We’ve had a couple of situations where the water got behind the berm, but that’s because it’s not closed off at both ends, But we’ve had no damage to property and we’ve been able to handle the water behind the berm with pumps.”

While the National Hurricane center has yet to update any further extension, local forecasts have now issued a major flash flood alert until 6 pm today. An estimated 1-2 inches of rain could fall by nighttime.

For continuing coverage of storm watch on LALATE, click here: http://news.lalate.com/category/weather.