Large waves from Post-Tropical Storm Rachel slammed into homes on the beachfront in Long Beach, Calif., over the weekend, leaving some of the houses appearing close to collapsing.
Long Beach city officials had red-tagged 13 homes on the peninsula, meaning all residents were forced to evacuate, in preparation for the surge in water levels from the remnants of Rachel, which moved inland from Baja California late Saturday night. One other home was yellow-tagged, meaning the occupants were ordered to prepare to evacuate at a moment’s notice.
The storm surge produced dramatic visuals of large waves crashing into beachfront homes over the weekend, and while there appeared to be cracks emerging in the foundations of some, there were no reports of any of them collapsing yet, according to a spokesperson for Mayor Rex Richardson of Long Beach.
At a news briefing on Saturday, Mayor Richardson warned residents to be prepared for potential flooding driven by the El Niño weather pattern, saying, “Rachel’s effects will reach the whole city, not just the peninsula.” The city set up sand bag distribution sites, and the mayor asked residents to keep them on hand for “the entire El Niño season.”
In an interview on Sunday, Mayor Richardson said the city had received less rain than anticipated, and that it had been able to manage minor flooding with large sandbags placed ahead of the storm. Some parking lots were flooded, and there were tidal pools on the beaches.
He said on Sunday afternoon that the city was still preparing for the possibility of water breaching the sea walls during high tide this evening.
The Long Beach marathon went ahead as scheduled on Sunday, although the route was altered to avoid the bike path along the beach.
Elsewhere in Southern California, the National Weather Service had issued a tropical storm watch for San Diego County, but it was called off on Sunday. In Newport Beach, in Orange County, the city was able to protect its beachfront homes from flooding after fortifying berms, according to The Los Angeles Times.
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