As Marie Fades, Malibu Tallies the Damage

31 homes remain evacuated near Puerco Beach, where a man's dead body was recovered from the surf yesterday.

Holly Bieler · September 10, 2026 · Malibu

The high surf and flood advisories may have expired in Malibu, but Hurricane Marie's impact is still very much being felt.

The city is still under emergency orders and at least 31 homes remained evacuated as of Thursday night, after a 30-foot sinkhole opened up outside the actor Nicholas Cage's home near Puerco Beach Wednesday morning. City staff said it could take five weeks before some residents are able to move back in.

Smaller reports of coastal damage extended across much of the area's coast. Near county line, Caltrans crews spent the day dumping boulders into a gap that had formed near an oceanfront stretch of pavement, [KBUU reported](https://malibu.fm/story/ocean-waves-chew-away-at-pch-east-and-west-of-malibu-20260910), while surf appears to have chewed a hole in a 40-foot cliff closeby. The city says it is watching erosion along PCH in the Palisades fire burn area and at Point Dume State Beach, where Westward Beach Road has been closed since early August. Photos posted on social media seemed to show coastal erosion in at least two points in those neighborhoods.

Reports indicate the hurricane might have also been responsible for a fatal drowning yesterday in Malibu. A man's body was recovered from the surf off Puerco Beach just after 3 p.m., only a few hours after the sinkhole emerged, and less than a mile away. Homicide investigators have suggested they aren't considering foul play in the case.

The city, for its part, is already looking past Marie. Its latest update warns of strong storms, high surf, heavy rain, mudslides and coastal erosion, as the countdown begins on a strengthening El Niño.