Long Beach orders evacuations, fast-tracks plans to rebuild beach as waves pound the Peninsula

Long Beach ordered some residents on the Peninsula to evacuate Friday night as Tropical Storm Rachel’s high surf and tides chewed away at the shoreline, tearing apart a section of a wooden boardwalk that is the neighborhood’s last line of defense against the ocean.

Residents from nine properties were told to leave the two blocks of oceanfront homes between 64th and 66th places after waves broke through the boardwalk’s bulkhead. The barrier had been left exposed after waves from Hurricane Marie ripped away its surrounding sand, and renewed swells from Rachel left it badly damaged Friday, allowing water to reach homes and side streets.

This comes after hours of high tide and surf sent water through the gaps in the beach bulkhead and onto the Peninsula’s side streets. Residents trudged through shin-deep flooding as onlookers stopped to take videos of splashing waves that reached as high as the roofs of some homes and tore into the city boardwalk. At least one seaside home at the 6500 block of Seaside Walk appeared close to collapse.

With the nighttime bringing another round of high swells, experts say homes’ foundations are once again under threat, especially those closest to the shoreline

Crews continued to make emergency repairs into the evening, pump water off the streets and fill in the exposed section with roughly 1,000 sandbags. A construction crane will be deployed Saturday to speed up bracing the bulkhead, according to city spokesman Laath Martin.

The city is also bracing for rain and wind this weekend.

Inspectors surveyed homes threatened by water damage and red-tagged eight buildings — totalling 13 addresses — in the 6400 and 6500 blocks of Seaside Walk. The red tag means they’re too dangerous to enter.

Another building received a yellow tag, which means its owner may go in briefly to collect belongings but may not stay.

The tags are preliminary, and a red tag can be downgraded to yellow once repairs are made and inspectors sign off. Inspectors will keep checking homes twice a day, according to Craig Nakano, a spokesperson for the city’s Community Development Department

The latest bout of strong waves — whipped up by Rachel — came just weeks after other hurricane-charged swells battered the Long Beach coast and the Peninsula.

The city is speeding up a multimillion-dollar dredging project to rebuild the stretch of Peninsula beach that’s been eroded. Martin confirmed Friday that the city’s $230,000 plan to move 50,000 to 100,000 cubic yards of sand into the area will start Saturday, with the full $11.4 million dredging project to start the week of Oct. 19.

Long-term fixes are expected to be even more expensive.

In the meantime, storms keep rolling in.

The forecast for this weekend

Bryan Lewis, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said high surf and tide are expected to rise precipitously each day through Sunday, with tides reaching 7.5 feet high on Saturday and nearly 8 feet high on Sunday morning around 10 a.m. Waves are currently ranging from 4 to 7 feet high, but are expected to rise to up to 8 feet by Sunday, he said.

Conditions on Sunday evening and Monday morning, he said, will mirror Saturday, and likely will not relent in strength until Wednesday morning.

The NWS announced a coastal flood warning for beaches from Malibu to Long Beach until 3 p.m. Sunday. Warnings are usually triggered when coastal buoys the Service monitors — in this case ones in the San Pedro Channel and city harbor — are routinely hit with high enough surf, Lewis explained.

This storm could also bring rain and wind. The city expects up to a half-inch of precipitation this weekend and gusts strong enough to knock down trees and power lines.

“Protecting our residents is our top priority as high surf and erosion impact our Peninsula community,” Mayor Rex Richardson said in a statement. He praised emergency crews and urged residents to “be prepared and follow City guidance.”

Lewis said rain showers could start in the area as early as Friday night and Saturday morning, with a second storm system hitting the area on Monday. Showers are expected to total between a half inch and three quarters of an inch of rain.

“This will bring additional rain, so that’s kind of separate from what tropical storm Rachel could be responsible for,” Lewis said.

City officials have limited traffic on the Peninsula to only residents. They urged them to prepare for the possibility of more flooding, which they said is most likely “between 6 a.m. and noon on Saturday and Sunday.” High tide is scheduled to hit between 9 and 10 a.m. on each of those days.

The Long Beach Marathon, meanwhile, will go on this weekend. Some of its course runs along the coastline but turns inland before reaching the Peninsula.