Laguna Beach landslide sends homes crashing down hill

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20050601-1015-ca-lagunalandslide.html


Laguna Beach landslide sends homes crashing down hill


(Bluebird Canyon- click on the link and check out the pics)

LAGUNA BEACH – A landslide sent at least a dozen million-dollar homes crashing down a hill early Wednesday and damaged as many as 15 others in this coastal Orange County enclave.
At least three people were taken to a hospital for minor injuries, officials said. Crews were apparently able to evacuate most of the residents before the earth gave way. About 40 homes closest to the damage zone were also evacuated, the city's mayor said.


"The pipes started making funny noises and the toilet sounded like it was about to explode," Carrie Joyce, a fire department office manager who lives in the neighborhood.

[phantom power]

1. I'm sure the insurance companies love events like this.

Paying out on claims for mansions that some fool built on an eroding cliff.

[rocktivity]

3. DING DING DING! Phantom Power, you're our grand prize winner!

...paying out on claims for mansions that some fool built on an eroding cliff.
Yeah! It's not exactly front page news anymore that houses built on hillsides in California have a propensity to be the victim of landslides!

:shrug:
rocknation

[phantom power]

5. They'll keep building as long as they can afford the insurance.

Same story as building mansions on sand beaches in the path of hurricanes, or building mansions on the flood-plain of a river, etc...

[slackmaster]

6. It's not just expensive homes being built in bad places

Here in San Diego we have hundreds of "affordable" to median-priced condos built in the flood plain of the San Diego River, in Mission Valley. I remember when the valley still had dairy farms, just one shopping mall, and no housing at all.

[phantom power]

12. Good point, it's all kinds of homes, businesses, etc.

[Digit]

47. I can recall looking for homes in San Diego years ago...

I did some research, and wanted a home high up, and NOT on an earthquake fault.
I purchased a home in the College Area for $35,000.
I was puzzled even then as to why they were building in a river bed. Shopping in Mission Valley gave me the heebeegeebees.
You can have the west coast with the insane prices...I like the east coast with the history behind it.

[Digit]

48. The news tonight said that insurance did not cover landslides....

Florida is having the same problem with inability to purchase insurance.
This is a huge problem since you could lose your life savings!
I am far from wealthy, so I could not absorb this kind of loss.
How do people do it?

[slackmaster]

60. I just read that this morning per State Insurance Commissioner

Many homeowners' policies here have exclusions for landslides.

This is a huge problem since you could lose your life savings!
I am far from wealthy, so I could not absorb this kind of loss.
How do people do it?

Some people do lose their life savings. I'd never buy a house in such a vulnerable area.

[struggle4progress]

37. Yeah, the brighter bulbs got that point about forty years ago. eom

[Gunit_Sangh]

10. Are you sure they were insured?

Maybe they couldn't afford insurance and will ask * for tax payer dollars to bail them out.

This is considered a valid use of tax $$$ while funding VA benefits, Section 8 housing and food stamps is not. </end sarcasm>

[phantom power]

13. I assumed. (and we all know what happens when we assume)

The insurance companies do appear to be reacting to these issues. I know that here in Phoenix, the insurance companies keep track of whether or not your house is built inside the Salt river flood-plain. I assume they charge extra for flood-insurance, if you live in the flood-plain.

I also recall that in Florida, the home insurance deductibles are getting huge, due to the repeated hurricane damage.

[slackmaster]

18. Any house that has a mortgage has insurance

And anyone who doesn't have a mortgage and elects not to have insurance is either so filthy rich or so stupid I don't feel any sympathy for them.

[FlaGranny]

65. Not always stupid -

If you own your home and are retired on SS, even with a pension, after you pay your property taxes, grocery bill, maintenance, utilities, etc., paying $1200 for a homeowner's policy for $25,000 (note that is 25 thousand - NOT 250 thousand) coverage on a mobile home is not easy. That's what my homeowner's insurance cost me this year. My homeowner's ins co dropped coverage and new coverage is almost triple what it was last year. I don't know how long I can keep this insurance and might eventually have to take my chances - and I'm far from stupid.

[cliss]

14. Do the insurance companies cover

stuff like this?

I thought that insurance companies refused to pay for "floods" and other "acts of God".

I know you can get a separate policy for flooding and other things, but I wonder if it's part of your typical homeowners policy.

[phantom power]

16. It might be a rider. Or, maybe they don't cover it.

If they didn't cover it, I'd say it's only reasonable. You pays your money and you takes your chances...

[ovidsen]

46. Private flood insurance basically doesn't exist

There's no money in it, so mainline insurance companies don't even offer it.

But the feds (through FEMA) does offer taxpayer backed flood insurance, and if you apply for a mortgage to buy a home in a flood plain, you have to have this insurance or you won't get the mortgage.

Also, private insurance does cover most "acts of God" damage; i. e. fires, wind, earthquakes, and (yes) mudslides. But policies and decuctibles vary. Homeowners had better check before disaster strikes.

[TX-RAT]

61. That type insurance is extremely, if not impossible to get in CA.

Joe tax payer will be picking up the bill on this one.

[bpilgrim]

2. video here ----------------------- ---------- > LINK

http://www.latimes.com/la-060105slide_lat,1,6791151.story

peace

[slackmaster]

4. "Hill Surfing"

Cowabunga!

:argh:

[nolabels]

15. Them are just wana-be mobile homes

http://home.versatel.nl/ceyhun/

[Up2Late]

54. That's great, did you see this one there?

I love sites like that.

[Vyan]

7. Now THAT

is The Real OC!

Wonder how Micha Barton likes dem apples?

Vyan
http://vyan.blogspot.com

[TahitiNut]

8. I love California and will always regard it as 'home' but ...

... I've always regarded the imbeciles who'd build houses on obviously unstable lands as deserving of disdain for their property losses. Real estate greed and corruption runs rampant -- taking advantage of people whose appetites for possession of exclusive 'rights' to shoreline or scenic property is boundless.

[Maddy McCall]

9. I've been watching this on the television.

Lots of mansions and SUVs sliding down the hill. Is it wrong of me to feel little pity for people who care so little about the environment?

[Up2Late]

55. Nope, I'm with ya. Pisses me off when the people who build...

...in or on the edge of the National Forests, that lose their houses to wildfires, who then start bitching about not enough Smoke Jumpers and Fire Fighters. :mad:
:evilgrin:

[anarchy1999]

11. Sorry to say I'm kinda happy to hear it. I lived in SoCal in '80/'81.

I went back in 2000 and 2001. Laguana was my most favorite place and I hated seeing what had happened in the 20+ years I'd been in Texas.

I'd love to see Laguna back the way it was many, many long years ago. I have a very good friend that owns a lot of property in downtown.

[elemnopee]

24. that's terrible

These people lost there house and you're happy, congratulations you're an asshole

[cliss]

25. I'm going to play the Devil's Advocate

and say I see where our posters are coming from. I can't honestly say I'm mourning a $2,000,000 house which slides down a hill.

After all, no one was killed in this landslide.

If you look at the photos on Yahoo, look at the color of the dirt where the homes slid. It's beige. It looks like sand to me. What foolish person buys a multi-million dollar house built on sand, much less build one? Why does greed have to be the overriding drive in our society, which completely trumps the delicate ecosystem in Laguna Beach. They could have left the area as a nature preserve.

So expect no sympathy from me.

Plus, I think this is symptomatic of all the wrongs we've had to deal with these past 5 years. There seems to be no justice, only rottenness and corruption. I'd say we're all looking for some kind of balance, that's all. Don't be too harsh.

[Sequoia]

38. There's a Bible verse out there about the foolish man

who built his house on the sand (landfill?) and how the rains came and the house tumbled down.

But I'll wager most of these people had no idea about the hill or didn't bother to find out. Sad just the same for anyone to lose their house. It looks very bad.

[SemperEadem]

26. Same here.. certain areas of Laguna Beach are really cool and bohemian

but Laguna succumbed to the nasty Orange County conspicuous consumption mentality vibe you find in inland OC areas like Irvine. I know some really cool folks who live in Laguna Beach and they're totally not of that nasty mentality--they're very spiritual and communal with nature and whatnot.

Personally, I don't see the difference between dancing on the head someone who just lost their home down the side of a hill and someone who lost their home from a tornado or hurricane. Until there is a place on earth one can live and not be affected by some force of nature, I won't dance on their head while they're facing this kind of disaster.

[Megahurtz]

36. The thing about this is that

the homes that slid are in Bluebird canyon which is an older part of Laguna, not that new shit that they built which you are referring to. Most of these homes were built sometime around the early sixties.

I know what you mean about them ruining the place, though.:(

[electricmonk]

17. Those houses in my city

would probably go for $250,000. Definitely not what I would consider "mansions". At least from the small photos in the original link they don't look like anything special.

[LibDemAlways]

44. In So. Calif. any house perched on

a hillside anywhere near the ocean is automatically a million plus dollar house. Old tired fixers in my inland neighborhood are going for over $600K. True, the houses are nothing special, but the land they are sitting on is considered very valuable. Of course, the land those houses were on no longer exists, and I doubt they were insured against landslides - particularly in that area which is known to be landslide prone. If you live in a canyon, brush area, hillside, at the beach, etc. you are always at the mercy of mother nature.

[Betsy Ross]

19. I can't remember the exact line

but after the Malibu fire there was a line about ridding the environment of human artifacts, something about nature taking care of its own.

[Up2Late]

20. Awesome, I love Slo-Mo disasters that happen to Rich people

That's what accumulated "Bad Karma" looks like.

[wiggs]

22. Nice

Sounds like what fundies were saying about the tsunami victims this year..."that's what happens if..." You just changed my perception of who generally posts on DU...and got yourself some bad karma.

Take a look at the images on Yahoo and see if you don't want to change your mind.

[Piperay]

39. They're not all rich

most of them are smaller homes that got drug down along with the mega mansions.

[Up2Late]

45. Yeah you're right, some of those probably went for slightly more than...

1/2 Million Dollars.

Laguna Beach has the one of Highest Average income per capita, in California, the smaller houses are probable Guest Houses and over priced rentals they rent to groups of low wage workers or students.

I went to Photography School in Santa Barbara (a similar, but much larger community) during the last Inflated Real Estate bubble in the 80's, and have been forced to work for less than living wages in areas like that, their are no cheap Houses in areas like Laguna Beach.

Here's an nice little Builders Dream-- unfinished 3bdr 2bath house in Laguna Beach for $599,900 (they say Approx. $100k to complete. great opportunity for a buyer to get a new house in LB at an affordable price)

(Click the picture)

None of those people were forced to build or buy a house on a hillside in Laguna Beach, they all chose to live there.
Laguna Beach is NOT a ramshackle Slum at the bottom of a deforested mountain (well, it is now, I suppose).

I will never feel any pity for those people, anymore than they than they stop to think about how the low wage workers in communities like that, who are forced to live hand to mouth.

Here's a link to California Real Estate website, go ahead and see if you can find a 3br/2bath house in Laguna Beach for less than $500,000.00, you will find 4 or 5 for less than 1 Million. <http://www.californiamoves.com/property/propertysearch.aspx?propsearch=0>

[Piperay]

59. I live in CA so I know already know

what the homes here go for. I still say just because you are living in a house that goes for over a half a million you aren't rich. My parents bought their home 50 years ago for twelve thousands bucks and now it is worth around three quarters of million dollars (it's not in L BCH, it's in a burb of LA County) and it's just a medicore 3 bedroom, 2 bath CA Ranch style tract house. Lots of older people are in houses that went up in value but it doesn't do you too much good because if you need to stay here all the houses go for as much as you would sell yours for so you don't come out ahead. I don't feel sorry for the people with the mega-mansions and truthfully I'm not losing sleep over the others either (there are people in sorrier conditions) but just want to emphasize that here the price of your home often isn't the determining factor in being rich or poor.

[Up2Late]

64. O.K. I understand your point, but this happen in 1978 on the SAME...

...Laguna Beach hillside to the Same people, who just laughed it off and rebuilt these houses! Check out the what one of some of these people said when interview by the L.A. Times, it was posted in Post #2, here's the quote.

<http://www.latimes.com/la-060105slide_lat,1,6791151.story>

"...The slide is in the area of Bluebird Canyon where a huge slide consumed a neighborhood on Oct. 1, 1978. A total of 24 families lost homes in that slide, and all but about six were rebuilt there.

"We were all here the first time around ," said Pat August, 65, who was talking with displaced neighbors at the bottom of Bluebird Canyon. 'It makes you nervous, but your first thought is that you hope no one is hurt....'"

These folks deserve not a moment of sympathy or Penny from the State or Federal Governments.

[Piperay]

66. Yeah, I agree

that is TOTALLY stupid. People here are notorius for that kind of thing they do it in Malibu too after being burned and or flooded out. I really think once something like that happens no one should ever be allowed to build in those areas again.

[DiverDave]

21. They got what they deserved

perched on a cliff, with unstable ground underneath...How stupid are people...oh wait we have an idiot in the white house...never mind.

[elemnopee]

23. such insensitivity

How are you sure all these people are rich?

Many non-affluent people live in these hillside communities, but bought their house 20 or 30 years ago.

It's terrible to lose your home whether rich or not.

[leftofthedial]

27. Ocean: 10,001

California homeowners: 0

[ElsewheresDaughter]

28. Calif. Landslide Sends 18 Homes Crashing

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050601/ap_on_re_us/laguna_beach_landslide/nc:716;_ylt=AoWHfwpWzlm10OaK3XvwDs534T0D;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl



LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. - A landslide sent 18 multimillion-dollar houses crashing down a hill in Southern California early Wednesday as homeowners alarmed by the sound of walls and pipes coming apart ran for their lives in their nightclothes. At least four people suffered minor injuries.




LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. - A landslide sent 18 multimillion-dollar houses crashing down a hill in Southern California early Wednesday as homeowners alarmed by the sound of walls and pipes coming apart ran for their lives in their nightclothes. At least four people suffered minor injuries.

About 1,000 people in 500 other homes in the Blue Bird Canyon area were evacuated as a precaution.

In addition to the 15 to 18 houses destroyed, several homes were damaged and a street was wrecked when the earth gave way around daybreak in the Orange County community about 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

"People were running down the hill like a bomb had gone off. I mean literally, they had their bed clothes on," said Robert Pompeo, 56, a retiree whose home is about 75 yards from the ridge where the most homes were lost.

Officials said they had no idea what caused the disaster. The landslide followed the second-rainiest season on record in Southern California, but Laguna Beach has been dry since a trace of rainfall nearly a month ago.

[ClintonTyree]

29. Whoever thought that....

building homes on the sides of steep hills in earthquake country was a good idea should be shot. I've been in a few of them, the owners always say, "isn't the view breathtaking"? How's the view from the BOTTOM of the hill, morons? :eyes:

[CottonBear]

31. "Officials said they had no idea what caused the disaster." Right.

This sort of thing makes me glad my biggest worry is a unexpected and random tornado.

[slackmaster]

33. If "Officials" weren't usually idiots, I'd like to be one some day

:dunce:

[hunter]

40. Here's my guess...

One of the new very wealthy neighbors decided he wanted his yard to have a "tropical" look, so he poured more water on the ground than it could hold.

Or a sprinkler pipe was leaking and nobody noticed, or they were too busy working to pay their outrageous mortgage and couldn't find time to fix it.

What's certain is that in Laguna Beach there will be a lot of lawsuits.

One thing I know is that real estate prices are insane on the California coast. I know a few guys my age who are now paper multi-millionaires even though they hardly ever worked or ever left home. They simply inherited their parents' or grandparents' "middle class" houses and never bothered to sell.

[Deja Q]

30. One word.

karma

[LostinVA]

32. Or on barrier islands

Having lived through several very bad NC hurricanes, it never ceases to amaze me when rich people squawk about their $5 million, five story, drywall houses being destroyed. They want to build there? Fine, let them. But no insurance if the place is destroyed.

Of course, the old one or two story cinder-block houses are always still standing.

[susanna]

52. I have said that so many times....

My husband always thought I was sort of weird because I go out of my way to find those old cinder block hotel/motel places on the east coast when we go on vacation. (There are a few left, you just need to look for them.) For me, it comes down to the fact that I appreciate people who understand the climate they live in and prepare for the worst.

It never ceases to amaze me when I see all the huge "drywall on sticks" homes just waiting for the next big one. I just do not get that mentality at all.

[Pithy Cherub]

34. Some of these people have had their Laguna Beach homes

for a very long time. Some are elderly. The equity has built up to astronomical amounts. I am not sure these people had insurance that covers the amount it would have sold at yesterday on the market. Some are house rich and cash poor. This is also the scene of an ancient landslide area. Laguna Beach is where many of the "very true blue" people live here in Orange County. Laguna Beach is also notoriously difficult to build in because of the natural hazards and zoning requirements. Up the coast in Newport Beach and Corona Del Mar is where many "deep red" folks reside.

The views are jaw dropping spectacular and the large decks were to look directly at picture perfect ocean views. It's about 2 miles as the crow flies to the ocean. We here in Southern California will rebuild just like the folks in hurricane zones, earthquake prone areas, trailer owners, epic fires because the weather and the lifestyle are unbeatable. Just wanted to paint a picture that some of these people are looking at the loss of everything, but will exhibit the California spirit to make the area habital again, just like the other side of Bluebird canyon from 1978.
On edit: You would be shocked to know how many Kerry/Edwards stickers are still on cars in Laguna...

Even as the helicopters zoom overhead to the slide area, my heart goes out to these people. Many of the people lost everything today. They were graced with their lives and the clothes on their backs.

[Piperay]

41. That's right LB is a blue area in

a sea of red Orange County.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

57. Great post and I agree

Laguna is still a pretty great community.

[XemaSab]

35. The lesson here

is to have a geologist come and look at the house before you buy.

Every house built on the edge of a cliff in California will someday come down. That's just how it is.

[Beaverhausen]

42. 2nd largest amount of rainfall in recorded history this year

I can't believe how heartless some of you are. There has been a very unusual amount of rain here in california this year. How the hell would these people have known this would happen?

I guess no one should live on any coastline that is prone to hurricanes, right?

Or how about Kansas? all those tornadoes? Don't those people know any better?

[bpilgrim]

50. people are so quick to judge others these days, even over force majeur

issues.

another sign of our media driven hate culture, imo.

very tragic day for Laguna residents i hope they are able to rebuild, anywhere, ASAP.

peace

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

58. Actually these people mostly DID know about the instability

of the hill. Either they lived there during the last big slide in 78 or it was disclosed to them when they bought.

That said, nature is unpredictable and I do have sympathy. These homes were (for the most part) built years ago.

[Neshanic]

43. That nasty little freak Shepard Smith was making fun of it.

On his "G Block" as he talked to Herman Munster.

[bpilgrim]

51. the M$MW always attack the VICTIMS in these cases

these corporate whores show their true colors every-time.

peace

[pinniped]

49. Another link with more pics.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/06/01/state/n082759D75.DTL

--In October 1978, a slide in the same canyon destroyed 14 homes.--

I bet most of the newer owners weren't aware of the history of the canyon.

--State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi said most residents who lost their homes probably did not have insurance coverage for landslides — something that insurers began eliminating more than a decade ago.

"Generally speaking, homeowners insurance does not cover subsidence landslides," he said. If the slide was caused by an earthquake or other problem, such as a broken water main, then some insurance might cover it, he added.--

[Up2Late]

53. Read this from the L.A. Times (with video) from post #2

<http://www.latimes.com/la-060105slide_lat,1,6791151.story>

"...The slide is in the area of Bluebird Canyon where a huge slide consumed a neighborhood on Oct. 1, 1978. A total of 24 families lost homes in that slide, and all but about six were rebuilt there.

"We were all here the first time around ," said Pat August, 65, who was talking with displaced neighbors at the bottom of Bluebird Canyon. 'It makes you nervous, but your first thought is that you hope no one is hurt....'"

They knew, this is why all you kind hearted people are paying so much for the insurance on your homes, this and the assh*oles who build in or on the edge of the National Forests.
:mad:

[Occulus]

62. And they have JUST lost what sympathy I did have for them n/t

[LeahD]

56. If insurers began eliminating coverage for landslides

ten years ago, I wonder if that means they weren't issuing new policies, or they terminated landslide coverage on current policies?

[slackmaster]

63. Every year at renewal time they send you a revised policy

If you don't like what they send you, it's tough shit for you. There is no requirement for them to grandfather terms of a policy from year to year.

[LeahD]

67. Nasty.

Then I would think that you'd be stuck with a house that no one else would want to buy. Or will people gamble and buy a house that's uninsurable for landslides?