All the property they built on the edge in SoCal is an accident waiting to happen. A lot of places were built on fill dirt and soil becomes unstable and erodes over time when it rains -- view is great when everything is dry and the land is hard as a rock -- try digging a hole when there has been no rain. Get rain and you sink in the dirt.
Malibu has had this problem for years along with other areas. At the old Norton AFB housing office was a huge picture of a huge rock in the center of the street in Highland after a huge slide sent rocks, mud tumbling all the way from the mountains into Highland. They had warnings in their housing books about areas where rock/mud slides could happen with rain. One look at that picture and we went to Upper Yucaipa where the danger was small instead of anywhere in N. San Bernardino.
Not quite accurate. Most homes that were built in the last 15 or 20 years had to meet some of the most stringent building codes in the country. The problem is, some areas, not all, were just not met to build on. And this specific area was way over built, according to reports.
When I bought my place in north Laguna, my lender, from its geologist's recommendation, required I run caissons down almost twenty feet into the bedrock to reinforce the foundation. Huge and costly job but probably worth it in the long run.
My grandson lives in Yucaipa. I had never heard of it before they moved there. CA is dangerous!