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<\/p>\nLong Beach\u2019s peninsula is a narrow spit of land that juts out between Alamitos Bay and the Pacific Ocean. Over the years, its tiny beach cottages were replaced by multistory homes and apartments with sweeping views of the water.<\/p>\n
It can seem a precarious spot. But Long Beach residents have long felt protected from the storms of the ocean by a vast breakwater constructed about 80 years ago to give the Navy safe harbor close to shore. The breakwater now serves as protection for Long Beach harbor, one of the largest ports in the world.<\/p>\n
Except there is a weakness.<\/p>\n
When it was constructed, the breakwater was built far enough east to protect the shore from waves coming from the west, but left a gap that allowed waves coming from the south to hit a narrow stretch of Long Beach\u2018s Alamitos Peninsula. That means that in the summer, when tropical storms whip up winds and waves traveling north, a small stretch of the peninsula gets the full brunt of those waves.<\/p>\n
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Workers install wood to protect a home on Long Beach\u2019s battered boardwalk on Sept. 23.<\/p>\n
(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
The result has left the peninsula vulnerable to the fury of El Ni\u00f1o. Several homes facing the Pacific are being broken apart by months of high surf and powerful waves. The historic wooden boardwalk has splintered. And residents and city officials fear things will get a lot worse as \u201csuper El Ni\u00f1o\u201d conditions peak this winter.<\/p>\n
This week, the National Weather Service cautioned about beach hazards along the Southern California coast. Newport Beach declared an emergency ahead of the storm and the weather service said strong rip currents and elevated surf could hit south-facing beaches including Long Beach through Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing is new to everyone,\u201d Long Beach Marine Bureau Manager Todd Leland said. \u201cIt\u2019s quite shocking, both emotionally and physically.\u201d<\/p>\n
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A couple walk along the shoreline in Long Beach as heavy equipment operators construct berms to protect homes on the peninsula on Sept. 23.<\/p>\n
(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
What is happening on the peninsula represents a defeat in a decades-old battle against the sea.<\/p>\n
For years, the city of Long Beach has managed the battering impact of relentless ocean waves on the exposed tip of the peninsula by hauling tons of sand to build out a beach that would protect the homes or by piling up sand into a protective berm. For years, it worked \u2014 at a cost of more than $1 million per year, the dump-truck loads of sand kept the waves at bay. <\/p>\n
This year, that system failed in spectacular fashion, as the remnants of three tropical storms walloped the peninsula back to back, leaving multiple homes falling into the ocean, much of the historic Long Beach boardwalk destroyed, and the seawall exposed for the first time in living memory. <\/p>\n
The city has now fast-tracked plans for a moderately more lasting solution to the problem, with hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of sand slated to be dredged up from the bay and deposited along the peninsula\u2019s shoreline. But whether that work will get done in time to protect homes from further damage remains to be seen. <\/p>\n
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A person takes photos near damaged homes along the peninsula boardwalk on Oct. 12.<\/p>\n
(Mario Tama \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Some peninsula residents have been furious with the city for what they say is a failure to take greater action to protect homes, such as securing funding to install wave-breaking reefs. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a catastrophe of man-made mistakes,\u201d said Kellie Canning, whose house sits on 66th Place, mere feet from homes falling into the ocean. \u201cAnd the city is nature-washing this.\u201d<\/p>\n
City officials and residents have been warned for years that this type of damage was possible.<\/p>\n
A 2015 Long Beach climate resiliency report highlighted the peninsula\u2019s vulnerability to flooding and erosion. <\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the anticipated rise in sea level and the projected increase in the frequency and severity of storms, continuing to maintain the berm, or even attempts to elevate the berm crest, are not likely to provide sufficient protection,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
The costs of marine projects must be weighed against the needs of the city as a whole, Leland said, and those costs tend to be high.<\/p>\n
To protect the boardwalk and the homes there, the city has been hauling sand from the west end of the beach to the east to create a buffer between the ocean and the shore. The goal, Leland said, is to at least try to replenish the sand as fast as the ocean removes it. That has worked until now, he said. <\/p>\n
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John Hernando builds a berm to protect a neighbor\u2019s garage on Oct. 10. \u201cAll we have is hope and sand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
(Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
First, impacts from Hurricane Marie arrived on Labor Day weekend, walloping the coast with 8- to 10-foot waves. Then there was Hurricane Polo, followed by Hurricane Rachel, with each sending higher-than-average waves to shore, Leland said. The cumulative effect has left the city unable to replenish the beach as fast as necessary to protect the homes on the exposed stretch of the peninsula.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a tipping point,\u201d Leland said. \u201cYou lose all capacity to return what was taken.\u201d<\/p>\n
The waves seemed to pay the sand no mind the weekend Hurricane Rachel was spinning in the Pacific, with wave after wave bashing ocean-facing homes and sloshing over several collapsed decks as ocean spray covered curious onlookers. <\/p>\n
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