Long Beach Braces for King Tides After Storm Leaves 13 Addresses Red-Tagged, Beach Gone

A Pacific storm system driving harbor tides toward 5 feet and carrying thunderstorms capable of dropping up to 1 inch of rain per hour is lashing the Long Beach Peninsula this Thursday — striking a coastline already stripped of its century-old wooden boardwalk, with 13 red-tagged addresses and 39 properties under evacuation warnings from Rachel, the most recent Pacific storm in a devastating six-week sequence. With King Tides bearing down on October 26–28 and a still-intensifying El Niño compounding every wave and surge, what is already a crisis is advancing toward catastrophe.

With Kelvin waves pushing ocean baselines 6 to 12 inches above normal and one of the most active Pacific hurricane seasons in modern history steadily reshaping California's coast, the Long Beach Peninsula has become ground zero for what may rank among the most damaging coastal emergencies Southern California has confronted in the modern era.

A Peninsula Already Structurally Compromised

Long Beach entered this week's storm weakened and exposed. Rachel — the fourth major Pacific storm of the season to send destructive surf crashing into Southern California in six weeks, following Hurricanes Marie, Polo and Odalys — struck as a post-tropical cyclone in early October, tearing apart sections of Seaside Walk's century-old wooden boardwalk and pushing ocean water levels 18 to 22 inches above predicted tides. That surplus arose from three forces colliding at once: the thermal expansion of El Niño-warmed ocean water, coastally trapped Kelvin waves elevating the sea's baseline, and peak astronomical tides arriving simultaneously.

Inspectors red-tagged eight structures across 13 addresses on the Peninsula — a designation under which residents are legally barred from re-entering to retrieve belongings. Nine homes remain under mandatory evacuation orders and 39 others are under evacuation warnings.

"These events are happening at a pace that is 'unprecedented in our community,'" Mayor Rex Richardson said. "Three major storm events, tropical storms and hurricanes within six weeks is unprecedented. Our infrastructure wasn't designed or built for this." Richardson added in the same briefing: "We have to prepare for even more severe conditions through this El Niño season."

Thursday's Storm: Not the Fiercest, But Damaging Enough

The El Niño-driven system crossing Southern California Wednesday night into Thursday does not rank among the season's most powerful — but for a coastline this exposed, the bar for additional damage has dropped significantly. The National Weather Service warned that thunderstorms could produce rainfall rates of 0.5 to 1 inch per hour Wednesday evening, with totals of 1.5 to 3 inches possible across south-facing mountains and foothills. For blocks stripped of their protective sand buffer, even moderate surf continues to carve into already-compromised foundations.

KTLA reported Thursday morning that harbor tides were forecast to crest near 5 feet in the morning and again in the evening. Further inland, Malibu and the Pacific Palisades face a separate hazard: burn-scarred hillsides stripped of protective vegetation by earlier wildfires can redirect ordinary rain into debris flows in minutes, prompting a targeted Flood Watch from the NWS covering those zones.

The Real Countdown: King Tides Arriving October 26–28

Thursday's rain is almost incidental compared to what forecasters have circled on the calendar. King Tides — the annual apex of gravitational coastal force, produced when the sun, moon and Earth reach near-perfect alignment — are due from October 26 through October 28. Under ordinary circumstances, they push coastal water levels measurably higher. Under this year's El Niño, they will interact with the Kelvin wave currently running northward along California's coast, which NOAA confirms can temporarily lift sea levels by 6 to 12 inches on top of an already elevated baseline.

Newport Beach moved first. The city council declared a local emergency on October 20 and activated its Emergency Operations Center, identifying the Balboa Peninsula, Newport Island and several low-lying harbor districts as high-risk zones. Officials reported that regional ocean water levels were already running 18 to 22 inches above predicted astronomical tides — meaning the approaching King Tides could drive flooding well beyond what standard astronomical forecasts alone suggest. Peninsula residents are pressing for permanent coastal fortification rather than the emergency berms and sandbags that have been overwhelmed repeatedly since summer.

Crews Race Sand Against the Calendar

Long Beach is fighting back. ABC7 reported this week that heavy machinery has been moving sand to the Peninsula to rebuild emergency berms ahead of the October 26 surge. The city is also pressing forward with a $11.4 million dredging project that will pump 415,000 cubic yards of sand from the Alamitos Bay entrance channel onto Peninsula Beach — enough to widen the shoreline buffer by up to 250 feet. The project is scheduled for completion in February 2027, which means it will not be finished before the King Tides arrive.

"I'm blown away. 'It's pretty bad,'" Peninsula resident Tomache told ABC7 as sand crews worked to reinforce the boardwalk. "They're doing a pretty good job so far. But not if that water wants to come up. It's never been like this, never."

The Season Has Barely Begun

The sand beach that once stretched 25 feet wide between Seaside Walk homes and the Pacific has been nearly erased after months of unchecked erosion, per NBC News. The wooden bulkheads and seawalls — built as far back as the 1920s — were engineered for a more predictable ocean than the one battering California's shores today.

NOAA is forecasting a strong-to-very-strong El Niño persisting through the winter, meaning the compounding sequence of storms, elevated ocean baselines and amplified tides will not end after October 28. For the Long Beach Peninsula, the question has shifted from whether further destruction is coming to how much the aging infrastructure can absorb before recovery becomes impossible.

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