Post-Tropical Rachel Floods Southern California as 8 Long Beach Buildings Are Red-Tagged
Updated
Updated · Los Angeles Times · Oct 11
Post-Tropical Rachel Floods Southern California as 8 Long Beach Buildings Are Red-Tagged
3 articles · Updated · Los Angeles Times · Oct 11
Summary
Flash flood warnings spread overnight across parts of San Diego, Riverside and Imperial counties as Rachel pushed inland after making landfall in northern Baja with 60 mph winds.
Rainfall rates in the Coachella Valley reached 0.75 to 1 inch per hour, while most coastal areas faced about an inch of rain and some mountain areas more than 4 inches.
Long Beach took some of the worst damage: seawater entered homes and streets, the Peninsula boardwalk crumbled, and inspectors red-tagged 8 buildings across 13 addresses after waves overtopped the bulkhead.
An evacuation order remains in effect through noon Tuesday for homes on Seaside Walk between 64th and 66th places, with the city bracing damaged areas with timber and thousands of sandbags.
Sunday morning posed the highest coastal flood risk as swells, onshore winds and high tides combined; Newport Beach was forecast to hit a 7.6-foot high tide, near recent record levels for Los Angeles County.
Could the catastrophic flooding in Newport Beach be less about freak weather and more about a fundamental collapse of coastal defense systems?
As temporary sand berms fail against compound flooding, is Southern California's luxury coastline facing an inevitable permanent retreat from the ocean?
With beach erosion accelerating and seawalls overtopped, how long until waterfront real estate in these iconic beach towns becomes completely uninsurable?