San Clemente landslide leaves four houses on the brink (pics)

[Liberal_in_LA]

San Clemente landslide leaves four houses on the brink
Hillside gives way, collapsing onto a golf course below. The homes are declared unsafe, and residents scramble to move belongings.


Scott Olmsted of Encinitas surveys the landslide behind his stepson's rented home in San Clemente. (Christina House / For the Los Angeles Times / January 7, 2011)





The slide created a 25- to 50-foot vertical drop beneath backyard patios and fences along the 200 block of Via Ballena in San Clemente. Residents hurried to move books, clothing, sofas and other belongings to driveways and frontyards or into hastily rented moving trucks.

City engineers "basically said the hillside is compromised so you just don't know when it will slide, and it's best to get your treasures to the front of the house," said Kelly Grush, whose family rented one of the homes for $3,000 a month. With the house now tagged as unsafe, Grush said she and her husband, John, and two children would spend a few days at her grandmother's, "then try to regroup."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-san-clemente-landslide-20110108,0,3685023.story