Heavy surf, red-tagged homes, a battered boardwalk: Long Beach confronts costly climate reality

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Set us as preferred A trio of storms since early September has put considerable strain on the historic Long Beach boardwalk, which collapsed further between 64th and 65th Place on Seaside Walk during a weekend of heavy surf.The city’s public works team and its Parks, Recreation and Marine bureau were working to secure it, putting up sandbags and rebuilding the berm to stop water intrusion.Officials are also continuing to monitor coastal homes that were red- and yellow-tagged during the weekend onslaught.Mud and sand inundated the Long Beach Peninsula as waves breached the boardwalk’s protective timber bulkhead.Inspectors red-tagged nine buildings along Seaside Walk, the Long Beach Post reported, with one building yellow-tagged.

Red indicates an address is unsafe to enter, while yellow restricts use.That fact that the damage to the boardwalk is cumulative presents a particular challenge, Long Beach Fire Department spokesperson Melanie Miller said Sunday.“The collapse began when [Hurricane] Marie came,” in early September, she said, “and it’s been building off of that.

Then Hurricane Polo, now [Tropical Storm] Rachel.It’s been continuous damage since then.“There have been preparations — we even deployed 3,000-pound sandbags,” Miller added, “but you can only do so much during low tide; there are limited windows of opportunity.

And the dynamics are working against you.”Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson said that the city was taking the situation “very seriously” and that it underscored “an importance to be incredibly serious in our region and in our state around climate resilience and coastal resiliency.”He said the crumbling boardwalk is a historic thread in the city’s fabric.“This is one of the oldest boardwalks in California and lots of memories were made on that boardwalk,” he said in an i...