Climate & Environment

Extensive damage, unsteady homes and urgent repairs: What’s next for Long Beach?

Damage from Tropical Storm Rachel could have been worse if peak swell, high tide and wind direction had lined up.

Waves crash into and damage a boardwalk and homes.

How would Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton manage California’s most precious resource, water?

CalMatters asked California governor candidates Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton how they’d manage conflicts over water.

A canal filled with a barren field to the left and a field with rows of crop to the right.

Long Beach Peninsula residents join scramble to save homes from high surf

As anxiety remains high about the weekend’s extreme weather, some residents said they were focused on taking action.

Listen 4:25

An Indian American man in an orange shit standing next to a battered boardwalk.

Why one small stretch of Long Beach keeps getting pounded with damaging waves

Long Beach is surrounded by a breakwater to protect its harbor, but the massive barrier hasn’t been able to shield homes on the city’s Peninsula from hurricane-charged swells.

A large wave bursts into white spray against a wooden seawall as a small crowd of onlookers and photographers watches from behind it, beside beachfront homes.

Gavin Newsom backs measure to kill the billionaire tax and ban future wealth taxes

Not only has Gov. Gavin Newsom vocally opposed the proposed California billionaire tax, but he also wants to prevent the state from ever passing a wealth tax in the future.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a man with a tan skin-tone and gray hair, wearing a white collared shirt and gray suit jacket, speaks during an event in San Francisco on Nov. 9, 2023.

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

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.

People holding sandbags as big waves slam a boardwalk

Weather whiplash: SoCal gets a huge cooldown, some rain and more coastal damage

The extended heat wave wanes and rain arrives this weekend. Along the coast, waves and tides are causing flooding and other damage.

Listen 0:42

A flooded boardwalk along a coastline with eroded sand berms.

Bears sometimes make for difficult neighbors. One expert started a company to help

State budget cuts eliminated a program that assisted communities that deal with lots of black bear activity. But a shortage of funds doesn't mean there's a shortage of bears.