Construction crews flash jury-rigging skills in attempt to save Capo Beach homes from angry surf

Mother Nature vs. Human Ingenuity.

Today is the first day of autumn, here in Southern California and a glorious fall light is greeting those who have woken on the earlier side to face the change of seasons. Autumn, here, is usually highly anticipated by surfers. The ocean waters are still warm and storm-born waves begin to smooch the shore.

Summer ended, of course, with a series of south swells that provided much joy, to the aforementioned surfers, but also much consternation to those who built homes on the sandy land. Laguna Beach got licked real good but not as good as Capistrano Beach where multiple homes became red-tagged, or deemed unsafe to enter, with many more yellow-tagged, or on the verge of being deemed unsafe to enter.

With another swell on the way, construction crews are busy at work doing whatever they can in attempt to outwit Mother Nature.

Homes in Capistrano Beach continue to suffer damage from pounding surf

I once owned a small home in Los Angeles and would do much of the work myself though I had no training and limited intelligence. Thus, I would jury-rig basically everything. No job too big or small to try and fiddle an imaginative, incorrect, solution.

Watching the above clip, thus, brought back happy memories of attempting unvetted methods in order to stave off disaster. I assume you, reader, have more skill than I. Do you think the above remedies, such as making a plywood wall or utilizing fluorescent orange barriers, will win the day or do you think the homes will continue to crumble?

Comments move to a new system on Tuesday 22 September 2026. Your existing comments come with you. From that day you comment with wpDiscuz instead of Disqus, right here on the same page.
Load Comments