SoCal coastline battered by Marie as El Niño is just getting started
Southern California coastal communities are experiencing significant damage from high surf and storm surges, which experts warn is only a precursor to a severe El Niño winter. Multiple homes have been red-tagged and infrastructure, including railways, has been compromised.
Why it matters
The report underscores the increasing vulnerability of coastal infrastructure to extreme weather events driven by climate patterns like El Niño.
To begin to understand how a "super" El Niño winter could punish the Southern California coast, the historic wooden boardwalk on the Long Beach Peninsula may just offer a glimpse at what's to come. Days of intense waves fueled by Hurricane Marie far away in the Pacific left several sections of the boardwalk destroyed after massive swells swallowed protective sand berms and slammed through the seawall. That force also left several oceanfront homes damaged, some flooded, with at least 24 homes put under evacuation orders until Wednesday morning, as officials assessed the extent of structural damage from the storm, according to the Long Beach Fire Department. "The whole beach is gone," said Carmen Vaudry, 58, describing how the sand used to sit just below the boardwalk in front of her home but now appears to have dropped several feet.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in