Friday’s damage came before Tropical Storm Rachel itself reached the coast. Powerful swells and unusually high tides pushed seawater across Newport Beach’s Balboa Peninsula, turning streets into waterways, surrounding cars and reaching homes several blocks inland. The city declared a local emergency as crews pumped floodwater and rebuilt beach barriers; Utilities Director Mark Vukojevic said the tide ran 20 inches above predictions, an event he called “unprecedented.”¹

The same vulnerability was visible farther north in Long Beach, where waves breached coastal defenses, ripped apart portions of a boardwalk and undermined beachfront property. Inspectors deemed several Peninsula structures unsafe or restricted their occupancy, while crews used sandbags and pumps to limit further damage. The episode sharpened concern that months of erosion had stripped away the sand buffer that once separated homes from the surf.¹

By Saturday, Rachel had shifted south and made landfall south of the U.S.-Mexico border before being reclassified as a post-tropical cyclone. That technical downgrade did not ease the official warning: forecasters said the storm’s high tides, surf and rain could still produce “major coastal flooding,” significant flash flooding and dangerous rip currents.²

Newport Beach’s response was to reinforce berms before the next tide. “Our goal is to reinforce as many vulnerable locations as possible before the next high tide,” City Manager Seimone Jurjis said, as contractors worked through the evening. Long Beach, meanwhile, began adding tens of thousands of cubic yards of sand and accelerated plans for a larger beach-widening effort.²

The looming test was Sunday morning, when forecasters expected an approximately eight-foot high tide near 9:45 a.m., with frequent six- to nine-foot waves and occasional sets up to 15 feet. Rainfall—potentially heavy in a short period—was expected to compound the coastal threat. Officials’ sand defenses were therefore a stopgap, not a declaration of safety: Rachel had already shown what the weakened shoreline could not withstand.²