I've heard that the beach at Avalon (Catalina Island) was made of imported sand. It's not a surf zone and the sand is still there.
The original article on this thread had stories about some traffic deaths, from a woman being killed by an SUV to some guy who ran across a freeway....to the fourth lane.
Interesting to note that of the three accidents reported, two did not mention the make, model or color of the vehicles involved, but the dreaded SUV was singled out for individual mention.