Remote Surveillance Trailer in Los Angeles, CA

It’s not unusual for a public meeting to be canceled for lack of a quorum.

But there isn’t even a word for what happened Friday when a once-obscure board canceled a meeting to decide the future of homeless services in Los Angeles because too many people came to vote.

More than 1,500 potential voters signed up for a meeting of the Los Angeles Continuum of Care board to pick a replacement for the core duties of the beleaguered Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. Under the board’s unusual charter, they all were eligible to vote merely because of their interest in homelessness.

The onslaught was organized by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who sent out a blast message through her communications networks urging people to join the meeting via Zoom to vote down the board’s recommendation that Los Angeles County assume those duties.

The response was overwhelming, but it didn’t work.

Over cries of foul from those who came in person, the board’s attorney Shayla Myers announced the meeting was canceled because the Zoom channel had a capacity of only 1,000.

Later, the board issued a formal statement saying, “The vote had to be continued today to ensure that all LA CoC members would be able to participate, given an unexpectedly high number of individuals who joined the online meeting.”

Bass and four City Council members then put out a statement lambasting the board for a failure that disenfranchised members.

“Without collaboration and transparency, management of this complex issue will continue to falter, and worse, our unhoused neighbors will continue to suffer,” the statement said.

The cancellation deepens a crisis over the region’s federally mandated homelessness functions. At stake is control over the annual homelessness count, the database that tracks every interaction with homeless people, the matching system that determines who receives housing and the responsibility for submitting applications for federal funding on behalf of dozens of local agencies.

The Trump administration touched off the crisis in June when it suspended LAHSA as the agency performing those functions, citing a history of mismanagement and possible fraud. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said local homeless service providers would have to apply directly to it for funding.

LAHSA contested the move in federal court. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter temporarily stayed the suspension, keeping LAHSA in place for now but allowing 60 days to choose a replacement to assume its duties.

That decision, upheld on appeal, put the onus on the Continuum of Care, an amorphous entity with a board and open membership that had long functioned as an appendage of LAHSA but actually had the statutory power to hire or fire the agency.

Carter ordered the CoC, as it is commonly called, to report on its recommendations Tuesday and set Oct. 27 as the date to name the new agency.

The CoC board, which includes representatives of homeless services contractors, hired outside consultants to set up an emergency bidding process and score the applicants. The City of Los Angeles applied for two of LAHSA’s functions, the homeless database and the matching system, but scored below Los Angeles County in both. The county applied for all four functions and won the recommendation.

The final step was a vote of the membership on Friday. The meltdown was foreseeable.

A member of LAHSA’s governing commission predicted it in an August LinkedIn post.

Noting that membership “consists of persons and entities interested in collaborative, solution-oriented planning to address homelessness in LA County,” Justin Szlasa concluded, “that could arguably include tens or even hundreds of thousands of people. No comprehensive list of general members currently exists,” and it would be almost impossible to compile one.

“As the LA CoC takes on more authority and moves out of the orbit of LAHSA, effort should be made to broaden and deepen engagement with stakeholders in our homeless response system ... who are all, by definition, members of the LA CoC,” Szlasa wrote.

Bass turned that advice into a crash course. As enrollment in Friday’s Zoom passed the 1,000 mark, Myers, the CoC attorney, told those present in the downtown meeting room that “because we have reached capacity on Zoom and CoC members are not able to participate, we have to continue this.”

The board is now working to upgrade its Zoom account and has yet to set a new date.

Bass and the council members blamed the CoC for not planning adequately for a large audience. “Angelenos want a voice in the future of homelessness services, and they were silenced today. The current proposal for County-only administration, recommended by the LA CoC Board, leaves no room for those voices to be heard,” the statement said.

Ben Kay, chair of the CoC board, countered that it could not have anticipated the mayor and City Council using their “immense communications infrastructure to push public turnout” to defeat the recommendation.

“Suggesting the board was unprepared for the city’s unprecedented actions plays directly into the hands of HUD, which started all of this by saying the L.A. region shouldn’t be allowed to make its own decisions about homeless services,” Kay said.

In a statement Saturday, Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said that, “failing to hold yesterday’s meeting is unacceptable and erodes public trust.”

Horvath said the county is prepared to partner with every city in the county to “listen to their concerns, and work toward solutions that address them.”

The county has committed that the City of Los Angeles would “at a minimum” maintain its access to the database and matching system, Horvath said.

Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.

A coastal flood warning covered beaches from Malibu to San Diego on Saturday as Tropical Storm Rachel moved toward Southern California, while Long Beach kept some oceanfront residents under an evacuation order, and Newport Beach closed piers and temporarily shuttered beaches before a reopening.

“For vulnerable south-facing beaches, especially Long Beach and Malibu, damaging sea-water flooding is likely,” the National Weather Service said Saturday, saying that Sunday morning carried the highest flooding risks along the Orange and San Diego coasts as swells, onshore winds and high tides combined.

The center of Rachel was expected to move onshore in northern Baja California on Saturday night.

Those warnings remained in effect even as Rachel’s forecast track shifted farther south, leaving most of San Diego County outside its projected path, said Adam Roser, lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service in San Diego. “Even though the track has shifted a little farther to the south, we’re still expecting wind impacts,” Roser said during a briefing.

Long Beach’s mandatory order covers homes on Seaside Walk between 64th and 66th places. It took effect at 7 p.m. Friday and runs through noon Tuesday, city officials said. A commercial crane is scheduled to drop sandbags on 65th Place and westward in front of addresses between 65th and 64th, city officials said.

“The return date is subject to change based on evolving conditions,” a city announcement said.

Waves topped the bulkhead and sent water into homes and streets, according to city officials. Inspectors red-tagged eight buildings across 13 addresses, including apartments, and yellow-tagged at least one, Mayor Rex Richardson said Saturday. A red tag marks a building as unsafe to enter, and a yellow tag restricts its use.

The city closed the Peninsula to nonresident traffic, with more street closures starting at 62nd Place.

Richardson urged residents to “take this seriously and be prepared,” saying “our infrastructure was not built for this.” A Long Beach Parks, Recreation, and Marine manager, Todd Leland, said the city’s bulkhead and pedestrian boardwalk had already sustained significant structural damage.

Workers are bracing damaged sections with timber and thousands of sandbags to stabilize the compromised areas and prevent collapse.

“Prepare right now for the impacts,” Richardson said. “Our infrastructure was not built for this.”

In Newport Beach, police posted an alert online Saturday morning saying flooding closed all city beaches and piers until further notice.

“Stay away from these areas,” police said. The announcement followed Newport Beach declaring a local emergency Friday after overnight flooding on the Balboa Peninsula.

By early afternoon, police said the beaches were open, but Newport Pier, Balboa Pier and the Wedge, from the rock jetty to M Street, remained closed.

In a video uploaded to the city’s Instagram account, an official asked people to stay off the berms. The man said the flooding would continue over the next couple of days. “We want the public to be safe during this time. We will get through this,” his post said.

The weather service expects more coastal flooding Sunday, when high tide at Newport Beach is forecast to reach 7.6 feet at 9:48 a.m. “Low-lying property including homes, businesses, and some critical infrastructure may flood,” the agency’s San Diego office said. Surf could reach 6 to 9 feet, highest at south-facing beaches, especially in Orange County, Roser said.

Joe Angelo has lived in the Newport Beach area for 60 years and bought his beachfront home 27 years ago. He said the flooding left him in “shock and disbelief.”

“I haven’t seen one drop of water on that sand in 27 years. All the sand, not one drop of water,” Angelo said. “We all love living on this oceanfront. But, boy, it makes you think twice.”

Sandbags lined dozens of homes and businesses near Balboa Boulevard on Saturday morning. Beachgoers strolled with coffee in hand, went for morning runs and walked their dogs. Despite the warnings, many climbed sand berms to watch the waves. Some did backflips off the sand.

Chris Perkins of Orange County brought his son Connor to see the surf. “I grew up around the ocean, and [I’m] just trying to expose my kid to the gnarly waves, and show him how to be safe and how to do it the right way,” Perkins said.

In Long Beach, cars lined up Saturday at a Peninsula parking lot as fire department workers loaded sandbags into trunks. Light rain began falling shortly before noon.

Monica Shephard, who lives in a beachfront apartment complex, said she was worried, noting that ocean water reached her doorstep three years ago. She planned to pick up sandbags for her complex Saturday night and praised the city’s precautions. “They’re doing a great job,” she said.

Huntington Beach also activated its emergency operations center Friday, the city said. Many spectators watched pounding waves there at high tide Saturday morning. Cyclists, walkers and runners packed the white concrete trail along Bolsa Chica State Beach. A section that flooded Friday appeared to escape more trouble Saturday, despite signs that said “flooded.”

The heaviest rain is expected late Saturday night into Sunday morning, Roser said. Most coastal areas could get about an inch or a little less. Some mountain areas could get more than four inches.

Many areas west of the mountains will stay in the 60s on Monday, and Big Bear may only reach the 40s, Roser said. Temperatures should warm by the end of the week, he said.

Inland, southern San Bernardino County faces at least a 40% chance of excessive rain that could result in flash flooding through Saturday night, said Julie Phillipson, lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Las Vegas. “Our primary concern is still the heavy rains and the flooding that can occur.”

Deputy Managing Editor Shelby Grad contributed to this report.

Tropical Storm Rachel brings with it a slew of potential hazards, including damaging coastal flooding.

The National Hurricane Center warned that Rachel could pick up some strength before arriving on the West Coast — an unusual occurrence for storms in the tropical eastern Pacific.

Typically, storms weaken significantly once they enter those cooler waters. But El Niño conditions and an ongoing marine heat wave have pushed ocean temperatures 10 to 13 degrees higher than normal, providing a far-more-conducive environment for Rachel.

“It’s notable that this is an unusual event that’s being made possible by both coincidence of this early arriving low-pressure trough off the coast of California and the record warm — and I do mean record warm — ocean temperatures off the coast of California right now,” UC Agriculture and Natural Resources climate scientist Daniel Swain said during a briefing Friday.

Rachel is expected to make landfall either in northern Baja California or San Diego County as early as Saturday night.

In the modern record, only two storms have passed through the state at tropical-storm strength.

The first — nicknamed El Cordonazo, or the Lash of St. Francis — hit Long Beach and San Pedro in September 1939. It dumped 5.62 inches of rain on L.A. over three days, spawned wind gusts of up to 65 mph and resulted in 45 deaths from flooding, with an additional 48 deaths at sea.

There was also Nora in September 1997, which was briefly at tropical storm strength as its center passed along the California-Arizona border, but California was spared the kind of damage it delivered to Baja California. Street flooding was reported in Imperial County, the Coachella Valley and San Diego, while big waves boosted by Nora and another storm sent breakers crashing into beachfront properties in Seal Beach, seriously damaging three homes and resulting in minor damage to 45 others.

The National Weather Service office in San Diego on Friday issued a rare tropical storm watch for most of San Diego County, including San Diego, Chula Vista, Carlsbad and Oceanside, meaning that tropical storm-force winds are possible over the next 48 hours. It’s only the second time a tropical storm watch has been issued in California.

Coastal flooding will remain the biggest concern for the region in the coming days, particularly for south-facing shores, given the combination of high tides, a higher-than-typical water level and the arriving tropical storm. Swells will not only bring the potential for water intrusion, but also hazardous surf — ranging from 3 to 6 feet in some areas — and rip currents, according to the weather service.

Officials had predicted that tides in Southern California would be 1 foot to 1.5 feet above normal what would ordinarily be expected without the abnormally warm ocean temperatures wrought by El Niño.

Around 9 a.m. Friday, the high tide in San Diego and La Jolla was coming in 17 inches higher than the official prediction, which doesn’t account for hotter-than-normal ocean waters or swells from tropical storms, according to NOAA’s tide forecasts. Tides were coming in 16 inches higher than the official prediction in Santa Monica and 14 inches higher in San Francisco as of Friday morning.

“We’ve got water that’s already high and then we’re going to have periods of high tides each morning and evening and then on top of that we have high surf,” said Miguel Miller, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego. “We have all these things stacking up on each other and we’ve already seen in recent weeks how just the high tides, even without the large surf, is putting water into places where it doesn’t usually go.”

A coastal flood advisory for Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties — warning of the potential for flooding in beach parking lots, boardwalks and roads, with isolated road closures expected, along with minor coastal erosion — is expected to remain in effect through Tuesday afternoon.

Coastal cities including Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and Long Beach have already seen significant flooding. Long Beach issued a mandatory evacuation order for residents of Seaside Walk between 64th and 66th Place.

While tropical moisture from the remnants of Rachel is expected to deliver only light rain to much of Southern California between Sunday morning and Monday night, the Mojave Desert, the Inland Empire and portions of San Diego County could see more significant precipitation.

The weather service is warning that there is a moderate, or 40% chance, of excessive rainfall that could lead to flash flooding in places like San Diego, El Cajon, Chula Vista, Escondido, Palm Springs and Twentynine Palms. A moderate risk means that numerous flash floods are likely, and that many streams may flood. There is a chance that the San Diego River near Fashion Valley could reach minor flood stage.

There’s also a 15% chance of that occurring in Oceanside, San Clemente, Laguna Niguel, Riverside, San Bernardino, Las Vegas and the California-Arizona border; and a 5% chance in places like Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Long Beach, Anaheim, Pomona, Victorville, Barstow, and most of Arizona and southern Utah.

In Los Angeles County, rain is expected to be light to moderate, ranging from about a quarter of an inch to an inch across much of the region. A bit more rain is expected in the San Gabriel Mountains, according to the weather service office in Oxnard. Rain rates are probably going to be a quarter of an inch per hour or less, making debris flow and landslides unlikely.

A bit more rain is expected in Orange County with coastal areas receiving from half an inch to an inch over the weekend and into early next week. Coastal sections of San Diego County could see between an inch and an inch and a half of precipitation with higher rain levels predicted farther inland.

El Niño impact

Nora arrived during a “very strong” El Niño season. That pattern is linked to above-average hurricane activity in the eastern Pacific, and also is usually tied to above-average rainfall for Southern California in the winter.

That climate pattern sees the heating of ocean waters in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, which spur changes in the atmosphere that can affect weather around the world.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center said Thursday that there is virtually a 100% chance that the El Niño this season will be categorized as “very strong.” There’s also an 83% chance that this El Niño will be the strongest on record, which goes back to 1950, up from a 75% probability forecast last month.

“With an event of this magnitude, the chances of experiencing impacts consistent with El Niño are larger, though not guaranteed,” the Climate Prediction Center said Thursday.

There have been only four “very strong” El Niños in the modern record — 1982-83, 1991-92, 1997-98 and 2015-16. Two of them — in 1982-83 and 1997-98 — deluged downtown Los Angeles with more than 30 inches of rain, more than double the area’s average annual rainfall.

The “very strong” El Niño of 2015-16 was a dry one for Southern California, with downtown L.A. getting only half its annual rainfall. But it did coincide with record coastal erosion along many California beaches, according to the state Coastal Commission.

As Southern California swelters through a record-breaking October heat wave, Los Angeles residents are confronting a familiar summer problem at an unfamiliar time of year: the cost of keeping their homes cool.

For one San Fernando Valley family, that cost arrived in the form of a $3,300 electricity bill. Micah Reed, who lives with his wife and two sons, says he was stunned by a recent bill from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power totaling more than $3,300. In a social media video that went viral, Reed questioned how keeping his thermostat at 74 degrees Fahrenheit throughout August could result in such a high charge.

His frustration resonated with other Angelenos who raised concerns about their own electricity bills. Reed subsequently launched a petition calling for an independent audit of LADWP’s rate calculations and additional charges. “Living in Los Angeles is already unaffordable enough. Running an air conditioner shouldn’t force families into debt,” Reed wrote. The controversy has drawn the attention of city officials. On Oct. 7, CBS Los Angeles reported that City Controller Kenneth Mejia had launched an investigation into the high bills, while the city’s Office of Public Accountability was evaluating the broader billing system.

The scrutiny comes as the region confronts a question extending beyond one family’s utility bill: What happens when the cost of protecting yourself from the weather becomes another source of financial instability?

In October, Los Angeles would ordinarily be moving toward cooler temperatures. Instead, a prolonged heat wave has shattered records, pushed daytime highs into triple digits and left residents with limited relief after sunset. Downtown Los Angeles reached 104 degrees on Oct. 5, breaking the previous daily record of 101 degrees set in 1953. Temperatures across parts of Southern California ran as much as 22 degrees above normal, according to the National Weather Service.

In an Oct. 7 announcement, LADWP encouraged customers facing higher summer electricity bills to enroll in its Level Pay program. The program spreads estimated annual utility costs across predictable monthly payments, making bills easier to plan for. But it doesn’t lower the cost of electricity itself. Monthly payments are based on past usage and adjusted over time to reflect actual costs. For households already struggling with rent, groceries and other necessities, more predictable bills may help with budgeting without easing the overall financial burden.

As these conditions become a more persistent concern in Los Angeles, the economics of staying cool become increasingly difficult to separate from the economics of living in the city itself. Residents cannot control when temperatures rise, but they must navigate the costs of adapting to them.

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Reed’s petition calls for an independent review of LADWP’s rate calculations and additional charges. Whether the review finds problems with billing practices or confirms the charges follow the utility’s existing rate structure, the controversy raises a larger question: Who bears the cost of adapting to a hotter climate? How should a public utility balance the cost of providing electricity with residents’ need to keep their homes cool during dangerous temperatures? And as high temperatures become a growing concern in urban life, what responsibility do utilities and policymakers have to ease the financial burden on households?

In Los Angeles, where housing and other necessities already consume a significant share of many residents’ incomes, the ability to adapt to rising temperatures may increasingly depend not only on where people live, but on what they can afford. The challenge is no longer simply how a city endures the heat, but how it accounts for the cost of living with it.

A local emergency was declared Friday after streets in Newport Beach were flooded as high surf pounded the Southern California coastline.

City crews were working to rebuild protective sand berms in the Orange County community. Video showed water flooding streets for about 10 blocks on the Balboa Peninsula, where water was knee-high in some areas.

"One of our biggest challenges is that the ocean water levels remain unusually high, even during the low tide," Newport Beach City Manager Seimone Jurjis said, adding Saturday morning's high tide is expected to be about 3 inches higher than what the city saw Friday. "That limits how quickly water can drain from the streets."

Crews also used pumps and opened tide valves to reduce flooding, which appeared to diminish Friday afternoon. Authorities urged residents to be cautious and stay clear of the shore with high surf expected into the weekend.

"The City of Newport Beach is advising residents and motorists to avoid the Balboa Peninsula due to street flooding caused by recent storm conditions and elevated tides," the city said in a post on X.

The city declared a local emergency to help Newport Beach obtain additional resources in response to the flooding and elevated surf. The emergency response was expected to continue through the weekend.

Temporary street closures and parking restrictions are possible.

Elevated surf and high tides are expected to create hazardous conditions along beaches in Los Angeles and Orange counties. A coastal flood warning is effect for LA and Orange county beaches through 3 p.m. Sunday.

Newport City officials urged neighbors in flood-prone areas to take precautions and move their vehicles and possessions away from areas that may flood.

In Orange County, surf of 3 to 5 feet, with occasional sets reaching 6 feet, is expected Friday along south- and southwest-facing beaches. A stronger southerly swell associated with Rachel is expected to arrive Sunday, potentially producing surf of 6 to 9 feet before decreasing to 3 to 6 feet Monday and Tuesday.

"Sunday is the day to watch when we could have those larger swells," said De Leon.

Strong rip currents, elevated surf and unusually high tides could produce coastal flooding and beach erosion, particularly in low-lying areas.

Morning high tides approaching 7 feet, combined with large waves and increasing winds, could create the greatest coastal flooding threat Sunday.