Huge waves from Hurricane Marie slammed the Southern California coast this week, eroding popular beaches and damaging oceanfront homes - even though the Category 2 storm didn't make come anywhere close to making landfall in California.
The destruction could be a preview of what California's coast could face during the coming winter, as a potentially record-strength El Niño could steer more powerful storms with large waves toward the state.
The Long Beach Fire Department evacuated 20 homes along the shore Tuesday. Breached seawalls and damage to the boardwalk, as well cracked concrete in between the homes, prompted the evacuation, officials said. The evacuation orders were lifted on Wednesday morning.
The water entered two homes and 12 garages in Long Beach. Waves in the area reached as high as 11.5 feet, according to a UC San Diego Coastal Data Information Program buoy. Lifeguards there had to help three surfers back to shore.
A five-block stretch of the boardwalk in Long Beach remains closed due to damage.
Dana Point was also hit. Six homes were red-tagged there and two homes were yellow-tagged.
Aliso Beach, a surfing hub in Laguna Beach, saw damage to private seawalls and public infrastructure, Laguna Beach Mayor Mark Orgill said. Four homes in Laguna Beach were yellow-tagged after sustaining moderate damage, he said.
"Having lived down there as a kid, I've never seen conditions like that," said Jonathan Warrick, a research geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey. "These are, at least in my lifetime, fairly unique. … I've never seen something like this for Laguna and Newport."
The hurricane formed off the coast of Southwest Mexico and moved northwest over the past week. Though it remained hundreds of miles from land, winds as high as 90 mph caused the massive waves that eventually battered the Southern California coast.
The storm was downgraded to a tropical cyclone on Sunday.
It's not the first time a hurricane - and one with the name Marie - has devastated the Southern California coast. In 2014, the Category 5 storm caused $20 million of infrastructure damages.
Brett Sanders, an engineering professor at UC Irvine who studies coastal flooding, said it's not uncommon for Southern California to see impacts from hurricanes since waves there usually come from south - where hurricanes form.
For the coasts of Northern California, the bigger issue is winter storms that form in the northern Pacific and bring winds that blow west-to-east, Sanders said. The threat is particularly high in the coming winter, when warm waters from El Niño could lead to more powerful storms and rain.
For Southern California, the coming El Niño could deal another blow.
"We've got an El Niño winter coming, and so we'll see how strong it is… but a lot of these beaches are already eroded," said Warrick. "They're in a difficult place already."
Newsroom meteorologist Anthony Edwards contributed to this report.
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This article originally published at 'Never seen something like this': Huge waves from hurricane blast Southern California beaches.