Guernsey Police closed the road to traffic and set up an inland diversion.

BBC: Guernsey's Perelle coast road collapses after high tide

The search for cheap housing has pushed people away from the Pacific and into places like the "Inland Empire, " which is an hour or two drive through smog-filled traffic jams from Los Angeles.

CNN: The California Dream is fizzling out

Traffic then was so congested that it took up to 19 hours to drive inland to Columbia, usually a two-hour trip.

CNN: Hanna closes in on U.S. as Ike becomes major hurricane

The Texas Department of Transportation said it expected to open a shoulder of northbound Interstate 37 to traffic -- from coastal Corpus Christi to U.S. 281 roughly 80 miles inland -- on Wednesday morning to help people trying to leave the city.

CNN: Nervous Texas braces for Ike