Long Beach evacuated the Peninsula instead of fixing its wall
By Daniel Okafor · Reporting from New York ·
Long Beach ordered evacuations on the Peninsula after storm swells flooded homes, exposing a municipal government that relies on sandbags rather than repairing its broken breakwater.
Long Beach is wrong. The city treats a systemic failure as a series of accidents. It asks residents to evacuate when the ocean enters their living rooms, but it refuses to fix the hole in its own wall.
A hole in the wall
The damage is concrete. Mayor Rex Richardson said inspectors red-tagged 8 buildings across 13 addresses. Some were apartments.
The city ordered mandatory evacuations for homes on Seaside Walk between 64th and 66th places. The order ran from Friday through Tuesday. A city announcement said, "The return date is subject to change based on evolving conditions."
The cause is a gap in the breakwater. This opening allows southern swells to reach the Peninsula. LAist said the city spends $1 million to $1.5 million every year to truck sand back to the beach.
The water rose fast. The Los Angeles Harbor tide gauge peaked at 7.7 feet Saturday morning.
Newport Beach felt the surge
Newport Beach felt the surge too. The city declared a local emergency Friday. Police closed the Newport Pier, the Balboa Pier, and The Wedge.
ABC7 Los Angeles said the city received 10,000 sandbags Friday morning. Crews worked to rebuild sand berms.
The ocean grew violent. Adam Roser of the National Weather Service said surf could reach 6 to 9 feet. This was highest at south-facing beaches.
Joe Angelo has lived in Newport Beach. He said, "I haven’t seen one drop of water on that sand in 27 years. All the sand, not one drop of water."
What is the cost of denial?
This is not a freak event. The mechanism is the same as Hurricane Katrina. A tropical cyclone's storm surge breaches coastal defenses and destroys homes in vulnerable low-lying zones.
The city knows the risk. Mayor Richardson said, "Our infrastructure was not built for this." City Manager Tom Modica said the impacts would last the next couple of months.
Long Beach has a plan for a rock wall of boulders. It costs $6.8 million. The city is also considering a dredging project. These are bandages on a wound.
Full habitat and shoreline restoration would cost between $150 million and $350 million. The city council approved only $30,000 to investigate that project.
Long Beach will now ask the governor and the federal government for money. This is the pattern. The city ignores the long-term cost of a broken breakwater and waits for a disaster to unlock federal funds. Until the city commits to full restoration, the Peninsula is not a neighborhood. It is a liability.