Long Beach Homes Are at Risk as Ocean Rises, Crews Race to Rebuild Defenses

For three days, waves kept hammering the same narrow stretch of Long Beach coastline. Sand piled up to protect the homes disappeared under the surf. Water cleared out of houses only to find its way back in.

By Monday morning, residents along the Peninsula were boarding up ocean-facing properties while another round of swells crashed against the seawall. One woman told KTLA that her home had flooded again just as things inside were beginning to dry.

She was frustrated that neighbors appeared to be doing so much of the immediate work themselves. “I’m waiting for the city to send people instead of making the residents fend for themselves,” she said as people nearby moved sand and worked on the homes.

The danger was not limited to wet floors. The National Weather Service specifically identified Long Beach’s Alamitos Peninsula as an area of concern, warning that coastal flooding could damage structures around high tide.

Holding The Line

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The KTLA footage shows waves surging against the shoreline while residents work around homes sitting only a short distance from the water. The station reported that city crews had built sand berms extending to the seawall on Sunday, but overnight surf erased much of that progress.

That detail complicates one of the reactions that quickly took hold beneath video of the flooding: that beachfront homeowners were simply demanding somebody else rescue properties they had knowingly bought beside the Pacific.

Long Beach was already working the problem.

The City of Long Beach said protective berms had been built and fortified in vulnerable beach areas and that sandbag distribution sites were operating for residents. The Long Beach Post reported that firefighters and Public Works employees also helped residents fill sandbags while crews reinforced a berm that was being eaten away by the swell.

That did not mean the defenses were winning.

Still Coming

The National Weather Service had coastal flood and high surf advisories in effect as waves continued battering the Southern California coastline. Forecasts called for breaking waves of 5 to 8 feet, with some south-facing beaches potentially seeing sets as high as 12 feet.

The agency singled out the Alamitos Peninsula because flooding near high tide could damage structures. It also warned of significant beach erosion and seawater reaching low-lying roads, walkways and other vulnerable areas.

Tropical Storm Marie itself was hundreds of miles southwest of Southern California. The National Hurricane Center said swells generated by the storm were still expected to produce dangerous surf and rip currents along portions of the Southern California coast.

The ocean had already demonstrated how far that energy could travel.

Too Close

By Monday, about a dozen garages and a couple of homes on the Peninsula had flooded, according to the Long Beach Post. One home sustained enough damage that its structural condition was being evaluated.

Then the situation worsened.

The Long Beach Post reported that approximately 20 homes were evacuated Monday evening after pounding surf breached a seawall and damaged the boardwalk outside the properties.

Cracks in nearby concrete raised concerns that the foundations of the homes could have been compromised.

For some of the properties closest to the Pacific, days of pounding waves had begun attacking the structures meant to keep the ocean on the other side.