Amtrak cars were pelted by waves, beach parking lots were torn up, and coastal homes teetered as sand washed away beneath them — but Southern California avoided a large-scale disaster over the weekend.
Tropical Storm Rachel weakened before making landfall in Mexico’s Baja California on Saturday, sending waves toward south-facing beaches in Southern California that were already strained by storms in September.
The Kelvin waves that are warming West Coast waters are making tides higher than normal, sending waves rolling farther up the beaches.
The waves battered and swept away a section of boardwalk on the Long Beach Peninsula on Saturday as water rushed into homes. The city said 13 homes were red-tagged, meaning they were deemed unsafe for entry, and another sustained enough damage to warrant it unsafe to live in.
Homes in Dana Point that sustained significant damage in September were on the verge of collapsing, and sidewalks were falling into the sea, according to an ABC7 news report. Before the weekend storm, nine homes were red-tagged and two demolished.
A sand berm spared Newport Beach from the worst of the flooding after waves sent water into the streets Friday.
Farther inland, Rachel’s remnants caused flooding in the Coachella Valley and shattered rainfall records in Las Vegas.
The post California beaches, homes slammed by waves from Tropical Storm Rachel appeared first on Washington Post.
