A coastal flood warning covered beaches from Malibu to San Diego on Saturday as Tropical Storm Rachel moved toward Southern California, while Long Beach kept some oceanfront residents under an evacuation order, and Newport Beach closed its beaches and piers.
“For vulnerable south-facing beaches, especially Long Beach and Malibu, damaging sea-water flooding is likely,” the National Weather Service said Saturday. The agency’s San Diego office said Rachel’s greatest impacts along the Orange and San Diego coasts would come Sunday morning, when swells, onshore winds and high tides combine. The center of Rachel was expected to move onshore in northern Baja California on Saturday night, the National Hurricane Center said.
Long Beach’s mandatory order covers homes on Seaside Walk between 64th and 66th places. It took effect at 7 p.m. Friday and runs through noon Tuesday, city officials said.
“The return date is subject to change based on evolving conditions,” a city announcement said.
Waves topped the bulkhead and sent water into homes and streets, according to city officials. Pumps placed in advance helped limit the flooding. Crews were making emergency repairs to the bulkhead when conditions allowed. Inspectors red-tagged eight buildings, covering 13 addresses, and yellow-tagged one. A red tag marks a building as unsafe to enter, and a yellow tag restricts its use. The city closed the Peninsula to nonresident traffic, with more street closures starting at 62nd Place.
In Newport Beach, police posted an alert online Saturday saying ongoing flooding had closed all city beaches and piers until further notice.
“Stay away from these areas,” police said. The announcement followed Newport Beach declaring a local emergency Friday after overnight flooding on the Balboa Peninsula.
Newport Beach said crews were rebuilding berms, opening tide valves and running pumps. “These measures are intended to reduce potential flooding impacts, but cannot eliminate all flood risks,” the city said.
Joe Angelo has lived in the Newport Beach area for 60 years and bought his beachfront home 27 years ago. He said the flooding left him in “shock and disbelief.”
“I haven’t seen one drop of water on that sand in 27 years. All the sand, not one drop of water,” Angelo said. “We all love living on this oceanfront. But, boy, it makes you think twice.”
Sandbags lined dozens of homes and businesses near Balboa Boulevard Saturday morning. Beachgoers strolled with coffee in hand, went for morning runs and walked their dogs. Despite the warnings, many climbed sand berms to watch the waves. Some did backflips off the sand.
Chris Perkins of Orange County brought his son Connor to see the surf. “I grew up around the ocean, and [I’m] just trying to expose my kid to the gnarly waves, and show him how to be safe and how to do it the right way,” Perkins said.
In Long Beach, cars lined up Saturday at a Peninsula parking lot as fire department workers loaded sandbags into trunks. Light rain began falling shortly before noon.
Huntington Beach also activated its emergency operations center Friday, the city said. Many spectators watched pounding waves there at high tide Saturday morning. Cyclists, walkers and runners packed the white concrete trail along Bolsa Chica State Beach. A section that flooded Friday appeared to escape more trouble Saturday, despite signs that said “flooded.”
The weather service issued the tropical storm watch Friday for most of San Diego County.
“It’s notable that this is an unusual event that’s being made possible by both coincidence of this early arriving low-pressure trough off the coast of California and the record warm — and I do mean record warm — ocean temperatures off the coast of California right now,” UC Agriculture and Natural Resources climate scientist Daniel Swain said.
Inland, southern San Bernardino County faces at least a 40% chance of excessive rain that could result in flash flooding through Saturday night, said Julie Phillipson, lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Las Vegas. “Our primary concern is still the heavy rains and the flooding that can occur,” she said during a briefing Saturday.
Deputy Managing Editor Shelby Grad contributed reporting.
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