Wednesday, December 15, 2021
Waves from former Hurricane Rachel left 13 Long Beach Peninsula homes red-tagged and dozens under evacuation orders, a warning for coastal families with the worst of El Nino still months away.
Pounding surf has pushed homes on the Long Beach Peninsula in Southern California to the edge of the Pacific, and in some cases into it. NBC Los Angeles reported that city officials red-tagged 13 homes as unsafe to enter after waves from former Hurricane Rachel smashed through the peninsula's protective bulkhead beginning October 8, 2026. NBC News reported on October 17 that this season's storms have claimed more than a dozen homes along the Long Beach shore.
The worst moment came before dawn on October 9. NBC News described a resident, Shawn Curtis, waking at 3:30 a.m. to find the boardwalk and the 25-foot-wide sand beach in front of his two-story beachfront building gone, salt water pouring in, and the building slanting toward the ocean. He escaped through his bedroom window with his dog. KTLA reported that the waves crumbled large sections of the historic boardwalk that day, and LAist reported that crews filled the breach with roughly 1,000 sandbags while pumping water off flooded streets.
As of October 12, NBC Los Angeles reported, 13 homes were red-tagged, one more was yellow-tagged, nine remained under mandatory evacuation orders and 39 more were under evacuation warnings. The Long Beach Post reported that water levels were still running 1 to 1.8 feet above predicted tides, which it tied to El Nino-related warming of the ocean, a Kelvin wave and elevated astronomical tides. The city has spent more than $1 million from its Tidelands emergency reserves on the response, according to the Post. Farther south, ABC News reported that Newport Beach declared a local emergency and closed all of its beaches and piers after streets on the Balboa Peninsula flooded.
The damage did not come from one storm. KTLA reported that Rachel was the fourth hurricane this season to send powerful surf into Southern California, and NBC Los Angeles reported that Long Beach declared a local emergency in September after damage from Hurricane Marie. Experts told NBC News that the strongest effects of El Nino are still months away. Timu Gallien of the UCLA Coastal Flood Lab called the damage "a little bit of a taste of what we will see in the future." Latin Times reported Thursday that a new Pacific storm was pushing Long Beach harbor tides near 5 feet, with king tides expected to peak October 26 to 28. The same problem is playing out on the East Coast, where more than 30 unoccupied homes have fallen into the Atlantic on North Carolina's Cape Hatteras National Seashore since 2020, AccuWeather reported, citing the National Park Service.
If you live on or near the coast, treat an evacuation order for wave damage the way you would treat a hurricane order. The sand under a house can wash out in a few high tides, and the moment of collapse comes fast. Keep a packed bag by the door with medicine, documents, chargers and pet supplies, and store it as a flood emergency kit that stays dry so it survives a soaked garage. Sit down this week and build your family flood plan in one afternoon, naming where you will go, who you will call and which route you will take if your street floods. Pick an emergency meeting spot well back from the shore so everyone knows where to regroup if phones fail. If your street floods at high tide but you are not under orders, keep sandbags on hand to steer water away from doors and garage openings. If you are visiting the beach, stay well back from damaged boardwalks and leaning homes, and follow posted closures, since debris from a collapse moves with every wave.
Long Beach crews are still shoring up the peninsula, and dozens of homes remain under evacuation orders or warnings as the next high tides approach. Be Prepared Not Scared!
