Thursday, October 1, 2026
When Harold and Carolyn Alvarado sat together in the kitchen of their home at 257 W. Olive St. on June 17, they intended to spend the night watching TV and enjoying dinner together.
But the powerful and raucous thunderstorm — a combination of heavy, torrential rain and consistent lightning which rocked the barrier island and flooded local streets — left the couple both frightened and rattled.
“It was raining and thundering like crazy,” Carolyn said. “It seemed like [the storm] was getting closer.”
Then, at 7 p.m., amid constant flashes of lightning, there was what Carolyn described as a loud “boom” that, literally, rattled their home of 20 years.
“It was like a bomb had gone off,” Carolyn said, describing the sound as deafening. “The whole house just shook.”
The storm was so intense, she said, that she and her husband didn’t realize until the next day that a bolt of lightning had struck and partially destroyed the chimney of their house, and that their entire home was without power.
“We thought everything was OK,” Harold said. “The next morning, on Saturday, nothing worked. We didn’t know the house was hit by lightning.”
That morning, the couple awoke to find “huge chunks” of concrete and brick in their driveway, in the street and in front of their porch, as well as on the west side of the house.
The “explosion” was so great, Carolyn said, that brick and debris even ended up in their neighbor’s yard. In addition to the damage to their chimney, around 60 to 70 tiles from the roof were destroyed as a result of the lightning, she said.
Carolyn, who described her house as “precious,” explained that the structure has a withstanding history in Long Beach. Built in 1927, it is not only listed on the City of Long Beach’s Register of Historic Places, but in 2005, the home was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. She said that though the incident is upsetting, she’s glad that the damage to the house wasn’t more substantial.
Harold recalled the “scary” event, and explained that during the storm, all four burners on his stove started clicking simultaneously, the electricity throughout the house went on and off, and the windows constantly rattled. He said he was shocked to find the remains of the chimney scattered around his house.
