Posted on 06/01/2005 8:55:57 AM PDT by Howlin
LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. - A landslide sent at least five expensive homes crashing down a hill Wednesday and may have damaged many others.
Fire department personnel had no estimate of the damage, and there was no immediate word on whether there were any injuries.
Television helicopter footage showed smashed homes on heavily built-up Flamingo Road. The earth was still moving beneath the homes. Some fell nearly intact, while others were ripped apart and left trails of debris.
The steep coastal area has had slide problems before and several homes were "red-tagged" as uninhabitable in February, during the second rainiest season on record in Southern California.
Laguna Beach is about 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
Building on a slope greater than the angle of repose of the soil (max angle it can stay up naturally over a looooong period of time) is only asking for trouble.
Here I am ragging on these people, but here is my back yard with about a 90' elevation change from the back of my pool to the back of my lot:
lol
Ping!
Well i think this morning at 7 am we had a high tide ?
I've been there, all up and down the CA coast, and I think views like that are extraordinarily boring after just a short while. Flat water horizon, nothing much out there or going on. Nice sunsets now and then. I can't believe what people will pay for a boring seascape, though.
This is the kind of water view we have in our area - somewhat more interesting, also with beautiful sunsets. And sunrises.
OK, so change it to -192.
Now saying 38 homes "affected" and hundreds evacuated.
Many of these homes should have never been built. It's sad for the owners, but JMJ, the danger is known when building takes place on landfills and on stilts along canyon sides.
Our house before this one, was built on a canyon side overlooking what was once the San Diego River. I was glad when we sold it. Every earthquake had me running out the door.
Just down my street, there's a newly constructed condo thang of maybe 5 units and as a little girl we used to play in that small canyon, and, over the years I have watched that canyon get filled with trash, dirt and a variety of weeds and small tree limbs. I was stunned when construction commenced and even stopped by to show the owner/builder what it looked like 40 years ago, and he didn't give a rip. I had black and white photos in my hand which showed the adjacent houses... yet, the city gave him a permit to build on that landfilled lot.
"Caller: No, well, not yet - the only reason why I'm still here is with the power out, I can't open my garage door."
LOL! Sometimes "thinning the herd" is a very good idea. ;)
When are the Movie Stars and Music-types getting together for one of those "Band Aid" thingies for these poor rich folk?
the LA Times says that kids were waiting for the school bus as the roads started buckling. I say the City of Laguna Beach is very lucky only one person is hospitalized...those neighborhoods should have been cleared out at 5am!
You said "all". I said that was not quite accurate. Which is due to the fact that they huge majority of coastal homes in CA have been there for many, many years and never experienced events like this.
I have no sympathy if you have no common sense.
My common sense is well intact, and I leave my personal thoughts about others making inaccurate statements to myself.
It didn't disappear. It's still there -- it just moved.
Did you move yet? How'd it go? Where are you now? Texas?
No, I havent moved yet....
Looking at Arizona.
The stair-stepping is done by what's called 'cut and fill'. Half the lot rests on an area formed by cutting into the side of the hill -- the dirt cut out (fill)is placed on the side of the hill outside the cut part so as to form the other half of the lot. This fill dirt is the unstable part of the lot.
LOL!
That dot is in San Pedro/Long Beach area for anyone else.
they already have a bank account set up for donations
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