A swimmer who vanished in the Pacific off Venice Beach was found alive on coastal rocks early Monday after a frantic overnight search.
The man, whose name has not been released, was spotted entering the ocean by witnesses near the 1500 block of Ocean Front Walk, but they never saw him come back, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. That disappearance triggered an emergency call around 1 a.m., drawing LAFD crews and lifeguards to the darkened shoreline.
First responders launched a full sweep of the beach, scanning the water and sand for any sign of the missing swimmer. The search lasted roughly 20 minutes before crews located the man on rocks in the area. LA lifeguards pulled him from the rocks, placed him on a gurney, and transported him to a local hospital with minor injuries.
Authorities have not disclosed what prevented the swimmer from returning to shore on his own. The circumstances of how he ended up on the rocks rather than the beach remain unclear, and officials have released no further details about the incident.
The rescue unfolded against a backdrop of dangerous ocean conditions that have plagued Southern California throughout the Labor Day weekend. Powerful surf generated by Tropical Storm Marie has been hammering the coastline, causing significant damage in multiple coastal communities.
In Long Beach, the storm-driven waves proved destructive enough to breach a seawall along the Long Beach Peninsula, sending water flooding into coastal homes. The Long Beach Fire Department conducted door-to-door evacuations Monday night at 20 homes situated between 63rd Place and 67th Place after the seawall compromise made the structures unsafe.
The flooding in Long Beach was extensive. Heavy waves inundated neighborhood streets, tore up portions of the nearby boardwalk, and washed away protective sand berms that had been put in place as coastal defenses. Several inches of water and sand flooded coastal neighborhoods across Long Beach and nearby Seal Beach, leaving residents to clear waterlogged debris after the pounding surf overwhelmed the remaining barriers.
City building officials are now conducting structural assessments on the affected Long Beach properties. Several homes sustained cracked concrete and foundation damage from the relentless wave action, raising concerns about their habitability even after the waters recede.
The Venice Beach swimmer’s survival offered a rare piece of good news amid the weekend’s coastal chaos. While the storm’s impact was most visibly destructive in Long Beach and Seal Beach, the rough seas created hazardous swimming conditions along the entire Southern California shoreline.
The tropical storm’s influence on regional surf patterns turned what might have been a routine late-night swim into a life-threatening situation requiring a multi-agency emergency response. The LAFD and lifeguard coordination brought the incident to a successful conclusion before serious injury or worse could occur.
The hospitalized swimmer’s current condition has not been updated beyond the initial report of minor injuries.