Tropical Storm Rachel tore nearly 30 feet from a Long Beach boardwalk and left eight California beachfront homes red-tagged after waves sent sections of structures drifting into the ocean.
Waves whipped up by Tropical Storm Rachel tore away nearly 30 feet of waterfront boardwalk in Long Beach, California, and undercut homes along the city’s Peninsula as officials moved to lock down access and tag damaged properties.
By Saturday evening, city crews had taped off a century-old boardwalk with “No Trespassing” signs, red-tagged eight homes as unsafe to enter, and yellow-tagged a ninth so occupants could grab belongings but not stay. Vehicle access to the Peninsula was limited to residents only while crews worked and inspections continued twice a day.
Daily Mail reporting on the storm damage described towering swells slamming a home in the 6500 block of Seaside Walk on Friday night, with water reaching second-story windows and pieces of building and boardwalk drifting into the Pacific. Floodwaters also pushed into side streets and patios as erosion chewed at the shoreline.
Long Beach officials said the red tags are not necessarily permanent. A red tag can drop to yellow once repairs are made and inspectors sign off. For now, the homes sit closed while the city assesses whether evacuation orders will be needed.
Sandbags went out in bulk. Crews distributed 7,600 of them as the National Weather Service’s coastal flood warning for Los Angeles County beaches ran from Friday afternoon through 3 p.m. Sunday. The service expected waves of four to seven feet, high tides over seven feet in the mornings, and the risk of damaged beach roads, damaged structures, and heavy beach erosion.
Residents and visitors were told to stay off beaches, coastal walkways, and vulnerable roads and structures. Motorists were warned not to drive around barricades or through floodwaters. Rain was forecast to spread Saturday night into Sunday morning, with showers possibly lasting through Tuesday night. Conditions could worsen Sunday under strong winds, rain, and elevated ocean levels.
Mayor Rex Richardson did not treat the damage as routine weather. He pointed to a rapid string of storms and the toll on the coastline.
"It is not normal that we see this type of activity."
Richardson tied Rachel to two earlier systems and described an unbroken stretch of high water and erosion.
"Just in this season, this marks the third hurricane in just six weeks. We saw Hurricane Marie over Labor Day, which was followed soon by Hurricane Polo, and now Rachel is bringing with it more high tides, more surf, erosion that continues to cause damage to properties and damage along our coastline."
He also asked the public to stay clear so work crews could move.
"We're encouraging everyone else to avoid the Peninsula all weekend, so that our city crews can have access and best perform this critical work."
Long Beach Fire Department Assistant Chief Jake Heflin put hard numbers on the water height and widened the warning beyond the most exposed neighborhoods.
"We’re looking at an unprecedented high tide, potentially 7.8 to 8 feet, which is significant for this area."
Heflin said the threat was not limited to the Peninsula or Naples.
"We’re not just talking about the peninsula, we’re not talking just about Naples, we’re talking about the potential for a citywide impact."
That framing matters for a dense coastal city. High water that starts on the boardwalk can push inland through streets, drains, and low-lying blocks if tides, wind, and rain stack up at the same time.
KTLA reporter Rich Prickett and his crew filmed the destruction from a helicopter and described damage worse than anything they had covered in recent weeks.
Prickett said the boardwalk was coming apart in real time and that homes were taking a harder hit as the sand and support beneath them washed out. He pointed to one house already crumbling as erosion kept cutting underneath it. Separate video reported by California Post showed a structure being pulled off its footing while two people tried to haul it back until one of them was lifted off the ground.
No injuries or arrests were reported in the available accounts. The immediate public safety picture centered on unstable structures, closed access, and the chance of further collapse if another surge arrived before repairs or shoring could hold.
Stacey Sniezak, a Long Beach resident who has lived in her home for 45 years, told ABC 7 the scene left her devastated. She watched surf and high tides tear at properties people could not easily replace.
"It’s really heartbreaking to see how much has been affected with the surf and the high tides and everything. I mean, people are losing their houses."
She doubted quick fixes were even possible for the worst damage.
"It’s just impossible to fix at this point, and I don’t know how they’re going to do that."
That is the human ledger behind the tags and barricades. A red-tagged house is not an abstract line on a map. It is a locked door, a family kept out, and a coastline that moved overnight.
By the time officials finished taping the boardwalk and posting the tags, the operational picture was clear. The National Weather Service had already drawn a multi-day flood warning across Los Angeles County beaches. Long Beach had restricted the Peninsula, stocked sandbags by the thousands, and put inspectors on a twice-daily schedule. The mayor was telling non-residents to stay away so crews could work.
What remained open was the harder question the city itself flagged: whether the threat would force evacuations, and how much more of the waterfront would fail if Sunday’s winds, rain, and elevated ocean levels arrived as feared. Homes already hanging over eroded ground do not get safer when the next high tide stacks on top of saturated sand.
Rachel did not invent coastal risk in Long Beach. It exposed, in a single weekend, how fast a boardwalk and the houses behind it can go when high surf, high tides, and repeated storms hit the same stretch of shore.
When the Pacific starts taking the street, sandbags and press conferences are what you do after the ground is already gone, and the people living on that edge pay first.
