Storm Rachel red-tags 13 Long Beach homes as waves batter Peninsula

Waves from Tropical Storm Rachel battered beach homes on the Long Beach Peninsula in Southern California on 10 October 2026, damaging a protective bulkhead and flooding nearby homes and streets, officials said. The high surf red-tagged 13 residences in eight buildings and yellow-tagged another building after unusually high tides swamped them. City officials said the worst was still to come as the storm approached on 11 October.dailynews.com+1

The damage matters because it struck a dense residential strip already hit by two previous hurricanes since Labor Day weekend, and because the storm was still approaching. Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson told a Saturday news conference the fallout from the storm and those two hurricanes had been 'unprecedented.' Officials urged residents citywide, not only on the Peninsula, to sign up for Alert Long Beach, the city's emergency notification system, and to prepare sandbags for the weekend and the upcoming El Nino season.

What the storm damaged first

High surf broke through protective bulkheads, shredded wooden boardwalks and caused severe beach and foundation erosion at the Long Beach Peninsula on 10 October 2026, leaving some homes red-tagged or on the verge of collapse. Waves battered homes near 66th Place along the Peninsula. On Friday, punishing waves damaged a protective bulkhead, flooded nearby homes and streets and prompted evacuations, officials said on Saturday.

The mechanism was unusually high tides combined with powerful swells and onshore waves. On 9 October, powerful swells and unusually high tides sent seawater spilling onto streets in Newport Beach and Laguna Beach, forcing road closures and prompting crews to pump water from neighborhoods. The water overtopped and broke the bulkheads that normally shield the Peninsula homes, then eroded the beach and foundations beneath them.whittierdailynews.com

Officials counted the damage on 10 October 2026: 13 residences in eight buildings red-tagged, meaning unsafe to occupy, and another building yellow-tagged, meaning limited entry. Long Beach distributed over 10,000 sandbags ahead of Tropical Storm Rachel and about 17,000 across the three recent weather events, with pickups at Fire Stations 7, 12, 13 and 14. Residents can still get sandbags at those stations.

Where the numbers came from

Newport Beach temporarily closed its piers and the Wedge on 10 October 2026 as crews worked to alleviate coastal flooding. Work crews used heavy equipment to bolster a sand berm as high tide approached near Newport Pier on the Balboa Peninsula. At Crystal Cove State Beach in Laguna Beach, waves crashed onto a historic cottage and eroded its foundation as the storm caused coastal flooding.

Long Beach Peninsula resident Brian Gerrard described the scene on Saturday: 'It's bad. It's going to be a lot of things to fix when this is over. It's a once-in-a-lifetime storm. Who's prepared for that?' Mayor Rex Richardson said at the news conference that plans and systems were in place for disasters, calling the event 'a sobering reminder of the power of nature.' Richardson urged people who do not live on the Peninsula to stay away so city crews could work.

What officials warned was ahead

City officials warned the worst was ahead and urged residents citywide to sign up for Alert Long Beach and make sure they had sandbags, not only for the weekend but for the upcoming El Nino season. Tropical Storm Rachel was expected to close in on Southern California on Sunday, 11 October 2026, threatening heavy rain, strong winds and even more flooding, with high tides, powerful surf and onshore winds on Sunday able to worsen coastal flooding in Orange County and Los Angeles.

Construction crews were seen trying to block waves entering homes along California's coast after Tropical Storm Rachel brought flooding and power outages to the region, according to footage published on 11 October 2026. Excavators worked to protect properties as waves crashed into homes. The storm's approach followed flooding and outages already recorded across the region before the system arrived in full force on 11 October.

Other cities with south-facing beaches were reeling on 10 October 2026. Newport Beach temporarily closed its piers and the Wedge as crews worked to alleviate coastal flooding, and Laguna Beach crews pumped water from neighborhoods after the 9 October swells forced road closures. Residents cleaned up flooded homes on the Peninsula as erosion left houses red-tagged or on the verge of collapse.

The next dated event is the storm's arrival: Tropical Storm Rachel was expected to close in on Southern California on Sunday, 11 October 2026, bringing heavy rain, strong winds, high tides and flooding, with officials saying the worst was still ahead. Residents were told to sign up for Alert Long Beach and collect sandbags at Fire Stations 7, 12, 13 and 14 before the system moved in.