Evacuations Lifted After Powerful Surf Damages Long Beach Peninsula: Reports

LONG BEACH, CA — Residents forced from roughly 20 oceanfront homes on the Long Beach Peninsula were allowed to return Wednesday after inspectors determined none of the properties needed to be red-tagged following days of powerful surf that battered the shoreline, damaged the seawall and raised fears that homes could be undermined.

Mandatory evacuation orders were lifted Wednesday morning after Long Beach Building Department officials completed inspections of the affected properties, Long Beach Fire Capt. Jack Crabtree told Patch.

One property was yellow-tagged, while no homes were red-tagged and all remaining homes were deemed safe for occupancy. “City teams are now working on repopulation efforts and notifying impacted residents that they may return to their homes,” Crabtree said.

The announcement marks a significant improvement from overnight, when a mandatory evacuation order remained in place for about 20 homes directly along the seawall between 63rd Place and 67th Place, according to ABC7.

Long Beach firefighters had gone door-to-door Monday evening ordering residents to leave after days of pounding waves damaged the boardwalk, breached the protective seawall and opened alarming cracks in concrete around some homes.

The Long Beach Post reported that concrete slabs between some houses had cracked or buckled, with fissures reaching to or beneath the walls of homes. Officials could not initially determine whether the foundations had been compromised, prompting the evacuations out of an abundance of caution.

Waves Strip Away Peninsula's Defenses

By Tuesday, the extent of the erosion had become stark. Waves had stripped away huge quantities of sand normally protecting the oceanfront properties, leaving an approximately 15-foot drop from the boardwalk to exposed rocks at low tide, according to a Long Beach Post report.

The surf also damaged the already battered seawall, leaving ocean water able to move beneath portions of the boardwalk and potentially erode soil supporting oceanfront homes.

At least 12 garages were damaged, and crews inspected homes for structural damage and soil erosion, NBC Los Angeles reported, citing the Long Beach Fire Department.

On Wednesday, Crabtree said emergency repair work performed overnight along the seawall held and successfully provided additional protection to the neighborhood.

Parks, Recreation and Marine and Public Works crews continued cleanup and recovery work Wednesday, while city crews planned to keep assessing conditions and making necessary repairs throughout the day.

The seaside boardwalk between 63rd Place and 68th Place will remain closed to the public while repairs continue, Crabtree said. Officials asked people to avoid the area so crews can work safely. The Claremont parking lot at 5400 E. Ocean Blvd., which had also been affected by the storm response, has fully reopened.

Residents Describe Homes Shaking

Residents described a frightening several days as waves generated by Marie hundreds of miles offshore slammed into the Peninsula.

Dennis Poulsen, who built his beachfront home in 2005, told the Long Beach Post that the erosion exposed the backside of the seawall, something he had never previously seen. Its condition was worse than he expected. “It just has no muscle left to fight,” Poulsen told the outlet.

Without the protective beach and an intact seawall, water can move beneath the boardwalk and erode the sand supporting the shallow foundations of ocean-facing homes, Poulsen told the Post.

Another resident, Paula Attina, told ABC7 that her home shook as waves struck the shoreline. “We just hope we will still have a house at the end of this,” Attina said. She described the sensation inside the home as resembling an earthquake and told the station the latest episode was the worst she had experienced there.

Long Beach resident Sheila Jones also surveyed the damage Monday. “I’m so sad. This is not good,” Jones told ABC7. “Homes are being destroyed. We don’t have a beach.”

The unusually powerful surf was generated by Marie, which remained hundreds of miles from Southern California rather than making landfall in the region.

Long Beach Marine Safety Chief Gonzalo Medina told the Long Beach Post that a combination of the distant storm, unusually warm ocean temperatures, elevated tides and high swell produced what amounted to a “one-two punch” for the Peninsula, with waves reaching about 5 feet.

The neighborhood routinely relies on a large sand berm and seawall to shield homes from high surf, but those defenses were overwhelmed during the latest event.

Long Beach Assistant Fire Chief Jake Heflin told FOX 11 Monday that officials were already concerned before the highest tide arrived. “If you take a look right now, that water's right up on top of that boardwalk, and we're still not even at the high tide,” Heflin said. “So these are serious things.”

Mayor Rex Richardson also pointed to the broader threat facing the coastal community. “The climate emergency is real,” Richardson told ABC7. “This is one event, but we have to be honest, this will happen again.”

For now, however, Wednesday's inspections brought substantially better news for residents who had spent two nights uncertain about whether they would be able to return home.

No properties were red-tagged, the emergency seawall work held overnight and all but the single yellow-tagged property were cleared for occupancy as the city moved from evacuation into cleanup and recovery.