The Wedge is famous for turning south swells into mayhem. Hurricane Rachel turned the beach into a construction zone.
New footage from longtime Wedge documentarian Brent Weldon shows Newport Beach police riding ATVs across the sand and clearing people from the shoreline as city crews move in heavy equipment. A giant tractor pushes sand into berms while the ocean surges toward homes and streets behind one of Southern California’s most iconic waves.
Newport Beach temporarily closed the Wedge, Newport Pier, and Balboa Pier after Rachel’s swell combined with unusually high ocean levels and powerful tides. The National Weather Service forecast 6-to-9-foot surf across Orange County, though the Wedge’s jetty can dramatically amplify south swell. See the footage below.
And the defenses had already failed once.
Police on ATVs could be seen clearing the sand as official loudspeakers blared: “The beach is now closed due to high tide. If you could please exit the beach. Thank you.”
A swell officials said arrived roughly twice as large as expected blasted through 20-foot sand berms near the Wedge and flooded streets from roughly 21st Street to 6th Street.
“This is the worst I’ve seen it in my 20 years on the Peninsula,” Newport Beach Councilman Joe Stapleton told the Los Angeles Times.
Weldon had warned months earlier that relentless south swells were stripping away the beach. “With the lack of sand,” he said in August, “there’s also an increased risk of flooding reaching nearby homes.”
Here’s more footage from Weldon, linked here and below, showing tractors moving sand:
The city declared a local emergency and said crews were “rebuilding beach berms, monitoring water levels, opening tide valves, and operating pumping systems.” Officials cautioned those measures “cannot eliminate all flood risks.”
Rachel had help. An El Niño-fueled Kelvin wave has raised Southern California’s background sea level by an estimated 6 to 12 inches, giving every high tide and swell a higher starting point.
And this season is nowhere near finished. NOAA says El Niño continues strengthening, with an 83% chance of reaching historic strength during October–December. Hurricane Simon remains active off Mexico, and another system has already become Tropical Depression Twenty-One-E.
The Wedge has since reopened, but Newport Beach is still monitoring the berms.
With El Niño conditions locked in and additional Kelvin waves raising the Pacific’s baseline water level, meteorologists warn that this historic surf season is only just beginning.
As more hurricanes brew in the Pacific, coastal communities remain on high alert for further inundation.
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