5-star hotel in the crosshairs as coastal flooding pushes SoCal to its limits

A luxury Laguna Beach resort is moving guests off its first floor as pounding Pacific surf threatens Southern California, with coastal flooding and significant beach erosion forecast from Sunday through Thursday.

The Surf & Sand Resort is taking extra precautions as waves batter the beachfront property, with a hotel employee telling The California Post that no guests will be placed on the first floor because of the threat.

“We are putting no guests on the first floor,” the employee said, describing the move as an abundance of caution. The worker said the building itself had not been damaged and had withstood major storms in the past.

But the resort’s precautions underscore a broader threat facing coastal communities across Southern California, where elevated tides and disappearing beaches are leaving homes, businesses and public infrastructure increasingly exposed.

The National Weather Service in Los Angeles warned that minor to moderate coastal flooding is likely from Sunday through Thursday, with high tides reaching 7.5 to 8 feet — as much as 1.5 feet above projections.

“HEADS UP!!!!” the agency warned, adding that moderate to significant beach erosion was likely and that some areas could face upgraded warnings.

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California’s Office of Emergency Services said a Coastal Flood Advisory would remain in effect along the state’s coast from Oct. 25 through Oct. 29, with Coastal Flood Warnings issued for Orange and San Diego counties.

At Surf & Sand, a newly circulated Instagram video purporting to show a section of the resort’s oceanfront seawall collapsing has added to concerns about the pounding surf. The extent of any structural damage has not been independently confirmed.

Laguna Beach surfer and skimboarding champion Blair Conklin captured powerful surf pounding the shoreline, where dwindling sand has left beachfront properties more exposed.

“There’s a reason they call it Beach Road… you got the Surf and Sand is now the surf and boulder, and the Beach Road is now—it’s definitely a rocky road,” Conklin said.

Conklin said offshore reefs that once helped break incoming waves were no longer providing the same protection.

“Waves are not breaking on those reefs that used to protect our coast a little bit… they’re just passing the reefs because it’s deep enough and then doubling up and hitting all the structures on the inside—and there’s no sand buffer.”

The danger extends well beyond Laguna Beach.

Crews are mounting a $4 million emergency operation to reinforce a fractured 360-foot bluff near El Moro and Crystal Cove, using heavy equipment, rocks and sand-filled plastic bags ahead of the king tides.

In Capistrano Beach, several homes along Beach Road have reportedly suffered structural damage. Six or seven homes have been red-tagged as uninhabitable and are undergoing demolition.

The latest threat follows successive hurricane-generated swells associated with Marie, Polo and Rachel, which have stripped sand from beaches, while an oceanic Kelvin wave is contributing to elevated water levels.