Tropical Storm Rachel's waves damage Long Beach homes; evacuations ordered, one drowning

Mixed · 2Powerful waves linked to Tropical Storm Rachel battered Southern California's coast, with Long Beach city officials saying eight structures had been red-tagged as unsafe and another yellow-tagged. 1 2 Right · 1Damage was concentrated along the Alamitos Peninsula, where waves battered homes, damaged a boardwalk and washed away sand berms built after earlier flooding; the city placed heavy-duty sandbags to support a failing bulkhead. 1 Right · 1An evacuation order was issued for the 6400 and 6500 blocks of Seaside Walk, and Mayor Rex Richardson said officials would keep assessing whether to expand the zone; vehicle access to the Peninsula was limited to residents. 1

Left · 1Al Jazeera's video report showed construction crews using excavators to try to block waves from entering homes along the coast. 2 Right · 1The National Weather Service warned that damaging coastal flooding was likely through Sunday, with the Sunday morning high tide expected around 8 feet, and named Long Beach and Malibu as areas of particular concern; it also issued a coastal flood warning for Los Angeles County beaches until 3 p.m. Sunday and a high surf advisory for 4- to 7-foot waves. 1 Right · 1Richardson called the impacts "unprecedented" for the community and said Rachel was the third hurricane in six weeks, after Marie and Polo; the city has handed out about 15,000 sandbags across three recent storms, including 7,600 for Rachel. 1

Right · 1On Sunday morning, an adult man drowned at a beach in Playa del Rey; Los Angeles Fire Department crews were called around 8:18 a.m., lifeguards performed CPR, and he was pronounced dead at the scene, with no foul play suspected. 3