Wide swaths of the Southwest were deluged Sunday as the remnants of Tropical Storm Rachel weakened and moved inland, but coastal communities already battered by high surf emerged with less damage than some officials feared. The National Weather Service said Sunday morning that Rachel was no longer a tropical storm. But danger remained as waves crashed into beachfront homes in Long Beach, large rocks and mud hurtled down a mountain onto a highway south of Palm Desert, and flood water submerged the parking lot of a casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
While the downgrading of Sunday’s storms brought some relief, risks continue across the California coast until Tuesday, and there is the longer-term concern of what is expected to be an active El Niño season. Although the heaviest rain is over, according to meteorologists with the National Weather Service, people across the Southwest can expect spotty rain and high tides for the next couple of days. On Sunday, some of the worst damage on the California coast was on the Long Beach Peninsula.
After tides swept away a portion of Long Beach’s historic wooden boardwalk Saturday, waves of saltwater rolled into a yellow two-story oceanfront house on Seaside Walk on Sunday. The ocean completely engulfed the house’s wooden deck. A balcony had broken off and hung at a 30-degree angle toward the water.
Yellow caution tape fluttered in the wind as water poured into a room strewn with wooden debris, an upturned refrigerator and a television. The yellow house on Seaside Walk began to collapse Sunday morning, according to two Long Beach Fire Department lifeguards. A house next door had cracks in its side, and others had wooden decks falling into or submerged in the water.
Coastal flooding is expected to remain a threat on beaches in San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties through Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. Flood warnings are in effect along the L.A. County coast due to high tides driven by warm ocean water and lower atmospheric pressure with the arrival of the remnants of Tropical Storm Rachel, said Joe Sirard, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
South-facing beaches, he said, were particularly vulnerable. Early Sunday morning, as Rachel was about 255 miles north-northeast of San Diego, moving with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph, the National Hurricane Center said it was winding down its coverage and that its 8 a.m. update would be its last. But it also warned that seawater would continue to batter the Southern California coast.
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