Tropical Storm Rachel devastates Long Beach boardwalk, forces evacuations and sandbag distribution

Tropical Storm Rachel struck Southern California, inflicting heavy damage on Long Beach’s coastal area. Eight Peninsula structures were red-tagged as unsafe and one yellow-tagged, limiting entry, while a building in the Inland Empire was ripped from its base, lifting a man off the ground. Mayor Rex Richardson announced a mandatory evacuation for residents on 64th and 65th streets and posted “No trespassing” signs on the damaged boardwalk.

Long-time resident Stacey Sniezak described the scene as heartbreaking and beyond repair. The city handed out 7,600 sandbags, bringing the total for recent storms to roughly 15,000. The National Weather Service issued a coastal flood warning, forecasting unprecedented high tides of up to 8 feet, along with rain, beach erosion, rip currents and flash-flood threats in the Imperial Valley and Arizona.