Landslides have been moving things around in the city for years. However, heavy rains in recent years have meant that instead of moving a few inches, things are moving a few feet.
“They are watching their homes, they are watching their streets crumble around them,” a city official said.
Recently, the attention in the city of Rancho Palos Verdes in southern California hasn’t been on the breathtaking views of nature, but rather on the bleak images that remind us of how nature can destroy human creations.
Surrounded by crumbling streets, sinking buildings, and homes cracked right down the middle, residents in Rancho Palos Verdes are well-aware of that landslides are behind the destruction. They’ve known about the landslides, and the small shifts they cause, for decades. Things are different now, though.
“You can almost see the ground move,” David Bradley, a Rancho Palos Verdes City Council member, told CNN.
The landslides beneath Rancho Palos Verdes. With a population of 42,000, Rancho Palos Verdes is located 30 miles from downtown Los Angeles. It sits on the Portuguese Bend Landslide, which is part of a larger complex of ancient landslides in the Palos Verdes Peninsula. According to the city, the Portuguese Bend Landslide was activated when the county extended a boulevard in 1956 and has become “one of the largest continuously active landslides in the U.S.”
Over the years, the city has become accustomed to land shifts. The land moves due to the dynamics of surface water that filters into the ground and water trapped deep beneath it. However, it’s never moved enough to cause destruction on the level seen today.
“The movement has accelerated dramatically over the last 12 months, where some areas are moving up to 10 inches a week,” Bradley said.
How heavy rainfall changed everything. Experts and city officials believe that heavy rainfall over the past two winters has intensified the landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes. Back in February, a particularly intense storm dropped more than eight inches of rain on Los Angeles. As noted by The Washington Post, downtown Los Angeles hasn’t seen so much rain in a period of two years since the late 1800s.
The Post reports that landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes immediately accelerated in the aftermath of the storm. Jonathan Godt, a landslide expert with the U.S. Geological Survey, told the outlet that the worst may be yet to come.
“For water to make its way from rainfall down to those levels takes time,” Godt stated. “Oftentimes it takes multiple years of wet weather for slides like that to move.”
The impact. For the city’s residents, it’s likely hard to imagine that things could get any worse than they are now.
The landslides have literally torn homes apart and sunken in roofs. As reported by The New York Times, the main road around the city is so rippled and hazardous, residents are concerned it could be shut down. There are also broken water and gas pipes around the city, in addition to leaning utility poles.
Nature didn't think to spare Wayfarers Chapel, a federal and state historic landmark designed by Frank Lloyd Wright’s son. Glass panes have shattered in the chapel, and there are fissures in the floor. As a result, city officials have temporarily closed the building.
In recent weeks, gas and electricity companies have cut off service to hundreds of residents in the city, citing the risk of wildfire. Some residents may never receive electricity again.
A state of emergency. On Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for the city, explaining that land under it was now sliding an average of 9 to 12 inches per week. The declaration directs all state agencies to provide personnel, equipment, and facilities to help Rancho Palos Verdes. It also requires residents of affected areas to obey the orders of local officials.
“There’s no playbook for an emergency like this one,” Janice Hahn, a board supervisor for Los Angeles County, said this weekend.
A determination to stay. While the Los Angeles County Sheriff has issued evacuation warnings to Rancho Palos Verdes residents, many have stated they will not leave. They may be mad about not having electricity, but they can’t imagine leaving their homes. Some have purchased generators. Others are cooking with hot plates.
“We just don’t have time to get upset now,” Sallie Reeves, a retired school psychologist who’s owned her home in Rancho Palos Verdes for more than four decades, told the Times. Her home is full of cracks and a huge hole in the ground. “We have to move forward, and the longer we stay mad, the less that gets done.”
Images | joey zanotti
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