SAN CLEMENTE, Calif., Oct. 20, 2026 As El Niño-fueled storms batter U.S. coasts, Surfrider Foundation's 2026 State of the Beach Report finds no state has rules strong enough to keep "temporary" emergency seawalls from becoming permanent, and permanently damaging beaches
/PRNewswire/ -- On the weekend of Oct. 10–12, surf from Tropical Storm Rachel, riding on El Niño-elevated sea levels, overtopped and breached the bulkhead protecting California's Long Beach Peninsula, collapsing part of one of the state's oldest boardwalks and leaving eight buildings red-tagged as unsafe. Two weeks earlier, a powerful nor'easter flooded coastal communities from New Jersey to New England. El Niño's impacts are already being felt on both coasts, and NOAA's Climate Prediction Center now puts the odds that this El Niño becomes the strongest ever recorded at 83%.
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