Sea level rise is reshaping a California beach town and threatening a key rail line

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. (AP) — For years, residents of this Southern California beach town could walk a mile along a stretch of cream-colored sand and dip their toes in the waves lapping ashore.

That trip has been cut short.

Coastal erosion has been eating away at the beach in San Clemente, known for nearly a century as a “Spanish village by the sea.” The rising sea and crashing waves have pushed the shoreline landward, splitting the city's picturesque North Beach. Crumbling seaside bluffs have damaged oceanfront homes and forced the repeated closure of a passenger rail line considered the second busiest in the country.

It's one of many California coastal communities grappling with the effects of sea level rise. Nearly a decade ago, scientists forecast that more than half of Southern California’s beaches could significantly erode by 2100, radically altering how people live and recreate along the state’s famed coast.

“The constant pressure is sea level rise,” said Sean Vitousek, research oceanographer with the U.S. Geological Survey. “It is going to keep rising, and rising, and the beaches will retreat landward.”

After years of erosion, California is bracing for flooding and landslides ahead of this year’s expected super El Niño, a temporary warming in parts of the equatorial Pacific known to warp weather worldwide. Already this year, the town of Pacifica south of San Francisco shuttered its cracked concrete pier, and seawater flooded homes in Long Beach near Los Angeles during a hurricane-driven storm surge. A recent study showed that El Niño events are getting stronger because of human-caused climate change.

In San Clemente, a town of 62,000 people, urban development has slowed the flow of sediment that once nourished the city's beaches, and warmer ocean waters have pushed waves higher and further ashore. It’s become so challenging that residents of the largely Republican city are considering taxing themselves to raise money for beach restoration. A measure to add a 1% sales tax to fund wildfire protection and sand replenishment in San Clemente is on the November ballot.

Over the past five years, the rail line that has operated along the coast for more than a century has faced repeated closures due to encroaching surf on one side and fragile bluffs on the other. The 7-mile (11-kilometer) segment is part of a 351-mile (565-kilometer) passenger rail corridor that links San Diego with Los Angeles County's huge port complex and San Luis Obispo. It's also used by freight and the military.

Transportation officials have shored up the tracks to ensure passenger safety by laying down rock. But as waves slam against the rocks, they sweep more sand offshore and speed up erosion that will eventually threaten the rail line again.

Locals say the erosion is dramatically altering their community.

“We've lost our walkable beach,” said Cameron Cosgrove, a San Clemente resident who wrote the tax measure. “It used to be you could come to North Beach, walk the beach trail, or on the beach to the pier and actually all the way down to the south end of town. Can’t do either anymore.”

City and transit officials agree more sand is needed and note that coastal communities, including surf hub Huntington Beach, have nourished their beaches for years. Opponents of the measure want sand — but not the tax — and argue San Clemente should work with other communities on a regional approach.

“Fighting Mother Nature is very expensive,” said City Councilman Zhen Wu, who opposes the measure.

City Manager Andy Hall said San Clemente faces a sand deficit of about 3 million cubic yards. Getting that much sand to the beach is no easy task, he said, adding that trucking it would require 300,000 trips.

Darrell Johnson, chief executive of the Orange County Transportation Authority, said a challenge has been getting state permits for more sand. He hopes California's recent emergency declaration ahead of El Niño will speed up the process. In the long run, Johnson said officials will study moving trains inland — an idea previously deemed too costly. A third option is to halt the line, he said.

“If we can’t figure out how to shore up properly in a way that is long-term in nature, and we can't figure out how to relocate, I think that is a question that’s going to have to be asked," Johnson said. “'What happens to passenger rail? What happens to freight?'”

Further south, transportation officials have been working to stabilize coastal bluffs to shore up the rail line in the community of Del Mar. The plan is to eventually move the tracks, but officials have not decided where.

Charlie Fox, a 56-year-old San Clemente resident and marine meteorologist, said sand provides a critical buffer between whatever structures — train tracks, homes, lifeguard headquarters — are built along the coast. The lifelong surfer said sand also helps waves roll gently onshore, creating a steady wave break for surfing.

On a recent morning, surfers bobbed in the water off North Beach, not far from the rocky structure shoring up the train tracks by the sea.

“When you see those rocks, that's them attempting to fight the ocean," Fox said. “That is a futile endeavor.”

“The ocean wins,” he added. “Ocean always eventually wins.”

A surfer walks along North Beach as a Metrolink train travels along the coast in San Clemente, Calif., Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Oceanfront homes sit along the coastline near North Beach in San Clemente, Calif., Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Oceanfront homes sit along the coastline near North Beach in San Clemente, Calif., Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Surfers walk along North Beach in San Clemente, Calif., Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A couple hug at North Beach as crumbling seaside bluffs are seen behind them in San Clemente, Calif., Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

The Palestinian death toll from the nearly three-year Israel-Hamas war has surpassed 74,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Meanwhile, Iran's foreign minister says Tehran has not been formally notified of U.S. President Donald Trump's rejection of its proposed deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. And the World Health Organization says almost 700 people in Yemen have been killed since an escalation in fighting last month.

Here is a look at the latest news from the Middle East on Sunday.

Gaza’s Health Ministry on Saturday said the Palestinian death toll has risen to 74,016, with 175,068 wounded. The war erupted on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 others hostage.

While a ceasefire that took effect last Oct. 10 has halted the heaviest fighting, Israeli strikes have continued in what the military has said are responses to threats or attacks.

Since the ceasefire, 1,145 Palestinians have been killed, said the ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government. It maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and international organizations. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants. Meanwhile, seven Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire.

Next steps in the U.S.-brokered ceasefire remain largely stalled. Israeli forces now control over half of the Palestinian territory, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says they will not withdraw until Hamas disarms.

Israeli strikes in central and southern Gaza killed two Palestinians and wounded several others, according to hospital officials.

In Gaza City, a strike hit a car, killing one person and wounding several others, according to Shifa Hospital. Video showed a chaotic scene around the charred vehicle.

Israel's military said it targeted a military operative.

A separate Israeli strike in the Muwasi area of Khan Younis killed one person and wounded three others, according to Nasser Hospital.

Israeli's military said it targeted a Hamas militant.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran awaited a U.S. response through mediators after Trump rejected Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume negotiations.

Araghchi spoke to Iranian state media on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Araghchi said Iran would assess the U.S. position once it was conveyed through intermediaries. He said Tehran’s conditions for reopening the strait remained unchanged and there would be “no backing down from them.”

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels accused Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces of striking a market in Yemen's Taiz province, killing at least seven people.

Anees al-Asbahi, a spokesperson for the Houthi-run health ministry, said the strike hit shops in a market in the district of Taiziyah. He said at least other 40 people, including five children, were wounded.

The military of Yemen’s internationally recognized government rejected the Houthi claims, saying it attacked Houthi “warehouses and positions” in northern, southern and western Taiz and left “dozens of dead and wounded” among the rebels.

There has been fierce fighting on Yemen’s Red Sea coast as government forces attempt to reverse recent Houthi advances. The WHO says almost 700 people have been killed since the escalation last month.

Israel’s leading Jewish opposition parties said Saturday evening they promised to cooperate to beat Netanyahu's coalition in next month's critical elections. The parties have been criticized for infighting.

The vote, the first since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, is largely seen as a referendum on the security failures that led to it.

The meeting was attended by Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief seen as Netanyahu’s main challenger; Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, two former prime ministers running together; Yair Golan, head of the center-left party, and Avigdor Lieberman, who heads a hawkish opposition party.

“We recognize that these elections are critical to the future of the state,” the joint statement said.

This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.

A woman walks and vehicles drive in an intersection in front of a billboard showing portraits of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right, late leaders of Lebanon's Hezbollah group Hassan Nasrallah, center left, and Hashem Safieddine, left, marking the second anniversary of the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Tents sheltering displaced Palestinians are seen amid war-damaged buildings in Gaza City, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by war-damaged buildings in Gaza City, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Women walk along a street surrounded by tents sheltering displaced Palestinians, in Gaza City, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Tents sheltering displaced Palestinians are seen amid war-damaged buildings in Gaza City, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)