Rachel was still roughly 800 miles southwest of San Diego on Friday when its swells began doing damage onshore. In Newport Beach, seawater overtopped beach barriers and turned parts of Balboa Peninsula into waterways, stranding cars and reaching homes several blocks inland. Utilities Director Mark Vukojevic estimated that 15 to 20 blocks flooded, with the tide arriving 20 inches above forecast levels—an event he described as unprecedented.¹

The city declared a local emergency, deployed pumps and crews, and began rebuilding sand barriers as police limited access to flooded neighborhoods. To residents and local officials, the episode was especially alarming because it came before Rachel’s expected arrival and before its heaviest rain—a sign that eroded beaches and elevated ocean levels had left little margin for error.¹

Farther north, Long Beach faced a sharper structural toll. Waves breached a wooden bulkhead on the Peninsula, damaged the boardwalk and left buildings unsafe to enter. By Saturday night, Mayor Rex Richardson said eight structures had been red-tagged and another had received a yellow tag; some peninsula residents were under mandatory evacuation orders through Tuesday.²

Saturday night into Sunday: Rachel made landfall south of the U.S.-Mexico border and was reclassified as a post-tropical cyclone. Forecasters stressed that the label change did not reduce the danger. Weather service meteorologist Adam Roser warned, “We will start seeing it come late tonight and tomorrow.”²

The immediate response focused on buying time before Sunday’s high tide. Newport Beach contractors reinforced vulnerable sand berms, while Long Beach began placing tens of thousands of cubic yards of sand along its Peninsula. City Manager Seimone Jurjis said Newport’s aim was to “reinforce as many vulnerable locations as possible before the next high tide.”²

Forecasters expected the peak around Sunday morning: tides near 8 feet, frequent 6-to-9-foot waves, possible 15-foot sets, and rainfall that could turn coastal flooding into flash flooding. Their warning was blunt: Rachel’s first blow had arrived early, but its most damaging day could still be ahead.²