Friday: Tropical Storm Rachel was still roughly 800 miles southwest of San Diego when its surf began battering Southern California. In Newport Beach, high tide turned parts of the Balboa Peninsula into waterways, with seawater overtopping barriers, surrounding cars and reaching homes blocks from the beach. Utilities Director Mark Vukojevic said the water ran 20 inches above the predicted tide — an event he called unprecedented — as flooding spread across an estimated 15 to 20 blocks.¹

Newport Beach declared a local emergency, deployed pumps and crews, and restricted access to flooded neighborhoods. The immediate explanation was not Rachel alone: powerful swells met unusually high tides, elevated ocean levels and beaches already stripped of protective sand.

Saturday: The damage was sharper farther north in Long Beach, where waves breached a wooden bulkhead and tore apart parts of the boardwalk. Mayor Rex Richardson said eight structures had been red-tagged and another received a yellow tag; some peninsula residents were ordered to evacuate through Tuesday.² City crews began building a bigger sand buffer, while officials outlined a longer-term dredging project intended to widen the beach before future storms.

That same night, Rachel made landfall south of the U.S.-Mexico border and was reclassified as post-tropical. Forecasters stressed that the new label was no all-clear. Weather service meteorologist Adam Roser said, “We will start seeing it come late tonight and tomorrow.”²

Sunday: Officials expected the most punishing combination yet: an approximately 8-foot high tide around mid-morning, frequent 6-to-9-foot waves and isolated sets up to 15 feet. A coastal flood warning stretched from Malibu to San Diego, with rain expected to compound seawater flooding. The National Hurricane Center warned that surf and rip currents could become “life-threatening,” while the weather service said major rainfall flooding could force evacuations and rescues.²

The contrast was stark: communities were already repairing damage caused by distant surf, while forecasters warned that Rachel’s closest approach could make the coast still more vulnerable.