Terrifying new video from Long Beach, California shows giant swells from Tropical Storm Rachel crashing into the coastline and sending water surging over the seawall toward beachfront homes. On the city's Peninsula, the waves have ripped apart sections of the century-old wooden boardwalk, the last line of defense for the houses behind it, leaving some homes looking like they are barely hanging on at the edge. City officials have already marked eight homes unsafe, and several buildings are now off limits. Emergency crews and residents scrambled to shore up the defenses with barriers and sandbags as the coast took another beating over the weekend.

The destruction started while Rachel was still hundreds of miles offshore, when powerful swells combined with unusually high tides and already elevated ocean levels to breach a wooden bulkhead protecting the neighborhood. The area was especially vulnerable because it had already been battered by swells from Hurricane Marie just last month, which left parts of the protective wall exposed before Rachel's waves ever arrived. Officials ordered some Peninsula residents to evacuate on Friday night, and those orders are set to last through Tuesday. Forecasters warn that coastal flooding could keep hitting the Southern California coast for the coming week. With one storm after another chewing through the same shoreline, the big question is how much longer these aging defenses, and the homes behind them, can hold.