The remnants of Tropical Storm Rachel’s high tides continued to pound waves into Long Beach’s bulkhead and boardwalk on Monday, Oct. 12, even as the city began to shift its gears into making repairs along the Peninsula.
All the while, the deluged city continued preparations for what more El Niño has in store this winter season — much like many other Southern California coastal cities are facing.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Mayor Rex Richardson said during a press conference on Monday, Oct. 12, where he offered a status update on the impacts of the tropical storm. “We’re going to continue that work of providing those resources and responding.”
The impact on Long Beach’s Peninsula community, which has seen the majority of the storm’s damage, included some flooding Monday morning after relentless high tides since Friday.
City crews were ready with portable pumps to help deal with intruding water in the affected areas of the beach community.
Those areas included the city’s historic boardwalk, bulkhead, and homes along the Peninsula, where the city also plans to continue preparations for future El Niño events this winter season – not only in the beachfront community but citywide.
“Our first responsibility is always to safety, and that’s why we acted early, declared a local state of emergency,” Richardson said. “We mobilized our public safety crews early. Public works teams, infrastructure teams. We’ve reinforced damaged coastal protections. We’ve distributed thousands of sandbags. That response is continuing.”
Richardson thanked first-responders and city crews for their continued work over the weekend, and also gave a shout out to Peninsula residents for looking out for one another and cooperating with the response.
Besides the Peninsula, Rachel also flooded some parts of the city’s beach bike path near Junipero Beach – which led the Long Beach Marathon to reroute its course – as well as higher-than-usual tides in Naples Island. In Naples, Public Works crews quickly addressed water and minor puddling with no major flooding issues, Richardson said.
From Sunday night to Monday morning, high tide peaked at 7.6 feet in Long Beach, according to city officials. Significant damage continued to be seen along the bulkhead between 64th and 66th Places on Seaside Walk.
The National Weather Service downgraded the Coastal Flood Warning to an Advisory, which will be in effect until 2 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13, according to city officials.
Minor to moderate coastal flooding can be expected near times of high tide. Localized damage is possible in most vulnerable low-lying areas.
On Sunday evening, the evacuation advisory was lifted for all Naples Island, Treasure Island and Peninsula residents – except those Peninsula residents who are currently under an evacuation order or an evacuation warning.
A mandatory evacuation order was issued Friday, Oct. 9, and is still in effect for a small number of homes between 64th and 66th Place of Seaside Walk. An evacuation warning was issued on Saturday, Oct. 10, and is still in effect for Peninsula residents on 64th, 65th and 66th Places south of Ocean Blvd., as well as homes in the 6200, 6300, 6600, and 6700 blocks of Seaside Walk.
City building inspection crews continue to assess damage to affected properties. Eight buildings accounting for 13 residences have been red-tagged, and one has been yellow-tagged. No additional buildings have been tagged, city officials said.
“For the families displaced from their homes, this means facing those difficult questions about when you can return to your home, and what comes next,” Richardson said. “We’ll continue to stand with you and work with you to get those questions answered.”
Long Beach has provided 17,000 sandbags for this storm and 24,000 across three recent storms.
The city plans to continue addressing the impacts of Tropical Storm Rachel by continuing to brace for high tides and winds along the Peninsula. Officials also advised residents in surrounding areas to continue preparing for storm activity, have a go-bag ready, sign up for emergency alerts with Alert Long Beach, and follow instructions from public safety personnel.
Crews are also continuing to build sand berms and fortify areas near the damaged boardwalk to prevent impacts from spreading. Repairs will begin Tuesday, Oct. 13, city officials said.
Some residents along the Peninsula say they are continuing to grow frustrated with how the city is handling the storm impacts, and feel as if preparations are coming “too late.”
“Three major storm systems in six weeks have certainly exposed vulnerabilities in coastal communities, and we have to prepare for even more severe conditions through this El Niño season,” Richardson said. “Our responsibility is to use what we’re learning now to build stronger protections for the future, that means looking beyond immediate repairs to the infrastructure, shoreline improvements, and long-range improved investments for our community’s needs.”
Other coastal cities along Los Angeles and Orange counties, such as Newport Beach, Malibu and Palos Verdes Peninsula towns, have also faced impacts due to heavy rain and other natural disasters.
In the aftermath of the storm, high surf continued to impact the Newport Beach coastline on Monday, but conditions improved enough for the Newport and Balboa piers to reopen to the public, along with the famed Wedge surfing area. Protective sand berms remained in place after powerful waves inundated streets on the Balboa Peninsula and prompted a local emergency declaration.
A coastal flood warning for Orange County beaches was downgraded to an advisory Sunday afternoon, with the advisory remaining in effect until 2 p.m. Tuesday. The Newport Pier, Balboa Pier, Balboa parking lot and the Wedge, from the rock jetty to M Street, were closed over the weekend for public safety and to prevent damage to protective sand berms. But those areas were reopened Monday afternoon.
Newport Beach Lifeguard Capt. Andy White noted that the Balboa Pier parking lot was being reopened in sections as cleanup work continued. He also said that while the piers and the Wedge were reopened, people still need to exercise caution.
“We do ask that if you come down to the beach that you continue to stay off of the sand berms in order to maintain their integrity and effectiveness,” White said. “We do have surf forecasted for the next series of days, so when you come down to the beach, do us a favor, check in with the lifeguard, swim near a lifeguard, and we’ll see you at the beach.”
The city declared a local emergency after higher-than-normal surf and elevated ocean water levels associated with Rachel began flooding streets on the Balboa Peninsula on Thursday night.
“Everybody got caught off guard,” Orange County Board Vice Chair Katrina Foley told City News Service Sunday. “We didn’t expect the swell to hit this early. We’ve been in the planning stages for the past few weeks, but this hit a little earlier because of Hurricane Rachel. We had already planned to do some sand replenishment at Capo Beach, which we’re still planning to do on Tuesday.”
Maryam Zar, CEO of the Malibu-Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce (PaliBu), said on Monday, Oct. 12, that the “storm surge is always alarming.”
“It has been this weekend also because the waves were so huge that on parts of PCH between the two communities of Malibu and Pacific Palisades,” Zar said, “the waves were washing up onto the road, and that is a huge worry for us.”
This not only cuts off commerce, Zar said, but the storm cuts off “residents who use this major artery just for life, for mobility, for getting around, getting to work, getting to the hospital.”
Rancho Palos Verdes had unprecedented land movement following the heavy winter rains of 2022-23 and 2023-24, causing infrastructure and property damage that the city is still struggling with.
Another Palos Verdes Peninsula town, Rolling Hills Estates, saw 12 homes red-tagged and many others damaged when heavy rains in 2023 caused extensive damage.
Rolling Hills Estates Assistant City Manager Alexa Davis said the city “had no impacts over the weekend,” in an Oct. 12 email.
Rancho Palos Verdes has been prepping for El Niño for months already, according to city officials.
“We performed storm prep and had crews out monitoring for any issues,” according to Rancho Palos Verdes PIO Megan Barnes in a message on Monday, but the city did not have any weather-related issues.
The Rancho Palos Verdes City Council proclaimed a local emergency ahead of the potentially damaging El Niño storm season.
Next steps for Long Beach also include taking actions in its seven-point coastal plan to strengthen protection of the Peninsula, addressing both immediate needs and longer-term coastal resiliency. The plan includes repairing what has been damaged, putting more sand back on the beach, creating additional layers of protection and pursuing longer-term solutions and funding.
Part of that plan is the $11.4 million Alamitos Bay Channel Dredging Project, which is expected to place 415,000 cubic yards of beach-ready sand on the Peninsula. This project, approved by Long Beach City Council in August and supported by Tidelands and Marina Capital Funds, is expected to extend the beachfront out approximately 200 feet – a needed buffer to ease wave action and flooding over the boardwalk in the impact zone.
Before the dredging project begins, the City plans to backpass additional sand onto the Peninsula. The goal is to add approximately 50,000 to 100,000 cubic yards of sand. Doing this first will help build out the beach and allow the larger dredging project to be as effective as possible.
This is particularly important as the current impacts from recent hurricanes have eroded the beach significantly. This roughly $230,000 project will be funded through Tidelands Emergency Reserve, a restricted public trust fund used to account for operations, maintenance, development and capital projects along the city’s coastal and waterfront areas.
This funding is not from the General Fund and not part of regular City emergency reserves, Richardson said. The dredging project has been accelerated and is expected to begin next week.
Some residents have shared concerns about the amount of funds being spent on one part of the city, but the mayor and city leaders sought to reassure the public that there could be future impacts that will have to be addressed later into the El Niño season in other parts of the city.
The Peninsula not only serves the residents that live there, but the boardwalk and the beach have also served thousands of other residents and visitors for many years, Councilmember Kristina Duggan said.
“This isn’t just about a couple of homes, and that’s really important,” Duggan said in an interview. “We do protect our residents across the city, and that’s what we’re doing here, as well as specifically public access is very important.”
City News Service contributed to this article.