'They're going to fall': 12 California homes evacuated after massive landslide

SF Gate ^ | 7/10/2023 | By Amy Graff

[NohSpinZone]

A massive landslide Saturday afternoon led homes to cave in and crumble in a Southern California neighborhood.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department said at least 12 homes were evacuated due to a sliding hillside on Pear Tree Lane in Rolling Hills Estates, a city in Los Angeles County on the northern side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

A video posted by the fire department shows massive damage to the homes.

A house in Rolling Hills Estates on Sunday, July 9, 2023, is severely damaged after a landslide on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County.

Janice Hahn, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, said some of the homes were pushed off their foundations.

She visited Rolling Hills Estates on Saturday night while the ground was moving. She said she had “never seen anything like” the damage that occurred.

“To think that these homes were intact, you know, yesterday afternoon, and today you can hear the creaking, the cracking, the crumbling,” Hahn said Sunday. “They’re going to fall.”

[TangoLimaSierra]

Gated communities don’t stop quakes and landslides.

The landslide probably followed someone through the gate.

[rktman]

Pssssssttttttt. Don’t build below a dam, too close to a ‘stream’, edge of a cliff, right on the beach......

[ProtectOurFreedom]

10X? Nope, passed that a long time ago.

Homeowner's policies specifically exclude earth motion or destruction of your actual earth property. You can get "Difference in Conditions (DIC)" coverage, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was not offered in Rolling Hills. Also, it just covers the structure, not your land property.

I think if your land just disappears (falls into the ocean due to cliff erosion, is completely swept away in a landslide), you are just SOL.

Probably the best these people can hope for is a FEMA loan. I suspect that they just lost $3 to $7 million of equity. POOF! Gone. One minute you are house-rich, the next you are house-poor.

[EVO X]

I was house sitting in Torrance some years ago. I drove to Tump National to pick up some golfing goodies. Palos Verdes Dr. near the course looked like a remote Canadian roadway with all the patches. If I remember correctly, one of the holes fell into the sea...

[rey]

The view for the neighbors across the street will improve.

[broken_clock]

👀!!!! Yeah, boys, looks like a great place to build some expensive homes. Let's get to work.

Fun fact. Most of this land was used as farmland. Japanese farmers tilled most of the area until a certain FDR tossed them into internment camps. Then the realtors swooped in.

[catnipman]

“Rolling Hills Estates”

apparently owners ignored the warning embedded in the name of their neighborhood ...

[broken_clock]

Haha, yes that’s the same golf course where Trump placed a 40 foot flag pole in violation of the local zoning 😂

Btw, the golf course is back to 18 holes… for the time being!

[lee martell]

Oh, I see.
So, Oprah’s Maid’s Maid’s Mother in law’s shack is still safe.

[NohSpinZone]

Oh interesting. I guess Fred Korematsu is finally getting his revenge?

[Getready]

I would guess insurance companies will start limiting their insurance for homes close to seismic faults, tsunami zones, ocean facing mesas, homes built on bluffs next to the ocean, or homes built very close to a sandy beach....
In california. best bet is a mobile home placed on that kind of property.

[higgmeister]

Just wow.   When I was stationed in the Azores there was a narrow beach with black volcanic sand below seventy or eighty foot cliffs.   Several abandoned houses were hanging half way over the edge of the cliff ready to fall with the next North Atlantic storm.

[FLNittany]

Heh - and nearly true.

[EVO X]

Haha, yes that’s the same golf course where Trump placed a 40 foot flag pole in violation of the local zoning

I house sat on a hillside overlooking the Pacific ocean. For any tear-downs or additions, construction firms had to put up flags for building height approval by neighbors.

[chrisinoc]

Fun fact. Most of this land was used as farmland. Japanese farmers tilled most of the area until a certain FDR tossed them into internment camps. Then the realtors swooped in.

---

Never knew that. My mother’s family farmed the area around Compton High School and present day Compton College until FDR and Earl Warren decided to intern them in Arkansas. They could have returned to Compton but my grandfather and uncles elected to go into the grocery business instead.

[CIB-173RDABN]

California had record rain this past winter. My guess the soil just become saturated which is the cause for many landslides. Will wait to see if they can determine the cause, not that it is going to help these homes, they are going down and there is nothing they can do to stop it.

If I was living across the street I would be packing to move until things settled down.

[milagro]

Golf course might soon go back to just one hole.

[EVO X]

Not sure about Oprah’s maid MIL, but this is nearby were Tiger Woods crashed a couple of years ago ending his golfing career.

[ridesthemiles]

THAT is TOO FUNNY !!!!!

[hadaclueonce]

New video, or the same one they show every year?