Just weeks after Hurricane Marie brought massive waves, flooding and destruction to the Long Beach peninsula, another tempest threatens the coastal enclave.
Hurricane Polo, slated to make landfall in Mexico over the weekend, is expected to send big waves north. These waves, combined with bimonthly high tides, could cause flooding, the National Weather Service in San Diego told The Times.
Weather reports reviewed by The Times predict waves as large as 9 feet in the ocean waters off Southern California, with the biggest impact expected Monday and Tuesday.
Long Beach will augment its normal emergency preparedness actions for the storm and continuous impacts from a potentially historic El Niño, city spokesperson Laath Martin wrote in a statement to the Times.
The city is testing a pilot program that will “mitigate water and wave energy by temporarily reinforcing portions of the bulkhead along the [p]eninsula with large, heavy-duty sandbags,” Laath wrote.
“Crews are also continuing to reinforce vulnerable portions of the pedestrian boardwalk,” he wrote, referencing work the city did in advance of Hurricane Marie.
A sandbag distribution site at a parking lot located at 5400 E. Ocean Blvd. will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. beginning Friday and lasting through the weather event.
In the days leading up to Hurricane Polo, Long Beach City Manager Tom Modica declared a local emergency to allow the city to use emergency powers throughout the winter storm season. The Long Beach City Council approved the declaration on Tuesday.
During the dramatic flooding of the Long Beach peninsula caused by Hurricane Marie, some 20 homes were evacuated, and portions of the boardwalk were destroyed.
The hurricane stripped away so much sand from a vulnerable stretch between 62nd and 69th places that “we can’t even get trucks down there to build out the berm,” Modica told the Long Beach Post on Tuesday.
Times staff writers Grace Toohey, Karen Garcia and Alex Wigglesworth contributed to this report.
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