'It's A Ghost Town': Beach Community Residents Heed Warnings, Social Distance Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

HERMOSA BEACH (CBSLA) — As Southern California entered its second weekend under local, state and federal orders to stay-at-home, beach community residents appeared to be heeding those orders in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Aerial images from SKY2 showed empty beaches and freeways on Saturday.

"That's why I get the whole beach by myself," joked Linda Babich, a Chino Hills resident. She and her husband knew all beaches were closed, and drove to Hermosa Beach to see the sight for themselves.

"It's crazy. It's so surreal. It's so surreal," said Babich to CBS2's Greg Mills, reporting from Hermosa Beach.

"It's like a ghost town. It's really strange," said Suzanne Soria, a Hermosa Beach resident.

In Redondo Beach, bike lanes were closed, with the popular pier shut down as well.

"It says you can go down to pick up food," said Debbie Carver, a Redondo Beach resident. "So we thought well we're picking up food. So we went on down to get food. But everything was closed."

One market open near the pier reported that business was down more than 50 percent.

Chris Bredesen, a business owner, who owns a restaurant in the area, and a few other beach community restaurants, says he has had to lay off 90 to 95 percent of his employees. He also had to close two of his locations.

At Runyon Canyon, hikers were locked out in a further effort to encourage social distancing.

"It's the one thing that kept me sane during this time," said Andrea Carlisle-Rodriguez, a hiker.