Tenants flee 12 unit building as chunk of bluff falls into ocean

[Liberal_in_LA]

Eroding cliff prompts Pacifica evacuation
Justin Berton,Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writers

Thursday, December 17, 2009


(12-17) 12:33 PST PACIFICA -- A Pacifica apartment building on a bluff overlooking the ocean was ordered evacuated today because the cliff is rapidly eroding, city officials said.
Tenants in the 12-unit building at 330 Esplanade Drive were told just before 11 a.m. that they had only minutes to leave, prompting a mad dash by the 20 or so residents to save whatever they could.

Then, a few minutes later, officials decided the tenants could safely remove possessions until 3 p.m.

Early this morning, officials said residents had until 5 p.m. to clear out of the two-story building, which was built in 1961. That directive came after a large chunk of the bluff fell into the ocean at 5:30 a.m.

Then, at midmorning, another large section slid into the sea.

"We just lost a significant chunk of cliff. They've got to go now," said Doug Rider, Pacifica's chief building official.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/17/BA601B5QLH.DTL#ixzz0ZzC5B4Oa

[niyad]

1. as dearly as I love the ocean, there is no way I would live on one of those fragile, unstable cliffs

who in the hell has given developers the requisite permission all these years?

[fascisthunter]

2. pretty idiotic building building like this one

the place for the building is even more ridiculous.

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. it was built in 1961, Then it was much farther from the cliff edge

The building lost 40 feet of land in the last year, so I figure it was probably reasonably far from the edge in 1961

[fascisthunter]

4. holy crap... 40ft!

it should have been condemned sooner

[benld74]

5. Dayam!

[Wilms]

6. Looks as though Mother Nature is reclaiming a wilderness area from real (fake) estate developers.

Good.

Hope all are out safely...and stay out.

[hayu_lol]

7. Down deep under the ground on much of CA's coastline...

is a thick layer of Kaolinite clay. When this gets wet, it might as well be grease--it moves and takes everything with it.

Back in the 20s, a very upscale housing development was built in Santa Monica. Beautiful homes with great views and even their very own trolley system. Wasn't long before the houses fell off the bluff into the sea.

Visited the place with a geology class in the mid-70s...absolutely nothing left including much of the development's land area.

Same problems with the Palo Verde peninsula overlooking San Pedro Harbor. Major slippage because people there were watering their lawns. Efforts have been made to control the slippage by eliminating watering lawns as well as standing water.