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SOLEDAD LANDSLIDE

Resident: 'A Putrid Smell'

GROUND
IMAGES: La Jolla Landslide

AERIAL
IMAGES: La Jolla Landslide

Images: Residents Evacuate In La Jolla

Send Your
Landslide Photos

Landslide Ground Video

Video: Residents React To
Landslide

Firefighters Update Slide Response

Raw Landslide Aerials

How Did Slide Start?

What Causes A
Landslide?

9 Homes Red-Tagged

Fire Department: New Cracks Appearing In Nearby
Neighborhood

POSTED: 5:48 pm PDT October 3, 2007

UPDATED: 10:31 pm PDT October 3, 2007

LA JOLLA, Calif.
-- Dozens of La Jolla residents are forced from their homes after a
landslide causes homes to cave in, roads to buckle, and officials are
wondering if there could be more houses in jeopardy.

NEW IMAGES | Aerial Images | Ground Images | Evacuation Images | NEW VIDEO: Landslide Aftermath

Video: How Did Slide Start? | Video: Residents React To Landslide

The slide occurred around 9 a.m. in the 5700 block of Soledad Mountain Road between Palm Canyon
Road and Palomino Circle.

The hole in the four-lane roadway is about 50 yards wide and
roughly 15 feet deep. It took down power lines, forcing officials to cut
power and gas to thousands. Tons of earth soon slid downhill from a number
of back yards on Soledad Mountain Road slid onto houses down below on
Desert View Drive. It took down power lines forcing officials to cut power
and gas to thousands.

Authorities ordered 111 homes evacuated near the landslide, nearly
doubling the size of an earlier evacuation zone, NBC 7/39 reported. At
least one home was destroyed and eight others seriously damaged. Nine
homes have been red-tagged, eight are yellow-tagged and 44 have
temporary-yellow tags.

One person was hurt in an automobile accident in the area, and two
people went to hospitals, possibly because of coronary events, said
Maurice Luque, a spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.

By early evening, authorities had escorted 49 people out of 55
homes, according to Luque.

The neighborhood of million-dollar homes a few miles from the
Pacific Ocean has a history of slides. City engineer Robert Hawk said
officials had been watching the area for the last three weeks.

A firm hired by the city last month was in the area in the hours
before the collapse installing measuring devices after a large section of
slope on Mount Soledad began to slip, said Hawk, a city engineering
geologist. The city began noticing cracks on Soledad Mountain Road in July
and water and gas main breaks in August.

Officials first became concerned about a landslide three or four
weeks ago. A water line in the neighborhood was replaced with an
above-ground pipeline in September to avert damage from the moving earth.

"We've had past failures in the area," said Hawk. The way the slide
happened, he said, was much like a book would tumble from a tilting shelf.

"This one seems to be where we have some geologic conditions which
allowed a large chunk of land to slide off the hill," Hawk said. By 3:30
p.m. he had said the movement "had slowed."

On Monday, city officials said they were moving quickly to prevent
catastrophic loss. They sent letters two weeks ago to alert residents and
began knocking on doors Monday. Initial cracking began in middle of the
street, according to Hawk. Over the next few weeks, it developed into a
pattern that affected four homes on Soledad Mountain Road.

Hawk also said consultants gave warned residents Tuesday night not
to sleep at home around 7:30 p.m. last night. City officials said there is
no evidence the slide was caused by city water or utilities events.

NBC 7/39 reported that according to the fire department, a similar
series of cracks have appeared on a nearby hillside of homes, along Via
Capri.

Mayor Jerry Sanders is expected to address the issue Wednesday
night. He had been in Washington, D.C. During an afternoon briefing, City
Council President Scott Peters said he expected the mayor to declare a
state of emergency.

"This is really a terrible event and something we're all very
concerned about," he said. Peters said he planned to call a special
meeting of the council to address the issue Thursday.

Evacuations

NBC 7/39 spoke with two people who live on Soledad Mountain Road in
front of the slide area. They were both very emotional and afraid that
they had lost everything. One woman had left work when she heard what had
happened and tried to get home to get her cats. Police did not allow her
to back into her house, however.

An evacuation shelter has been set up at La Jolla High School. Food
and water would be provided to people in need, officials said. A special
information line has also been set up for residents. That number is
619-570-1070.

Evacuees who need animal control to rescue pets that may be in
their homes are asked to call 619-236-2341.

Utility Outages

San Diego Gas & Electric arrived at about 9:30 a.m., according
to Luque. About half-dozen SDG&E crews are working on power lines that
are slowly giving way as a pole slips along with a hillside, NBC 7/39
reported.

SDG&E spokeswoman Rachel Laing said that gas leaks have been
reported in the area and the utility was aware of land shifting in the
area. She said SDG&E installed flex pipes and emergency shut-off
valves.

Thousands of customers are being affected by the outages, Laing
said. As 9:45 a.m., 2,443 customers had lost some service. By 3:30 p.m.,
Dave Geyier of SDG & E said outages were down to 100 customers, and
they were hoping to isolate the outages to the homes immediately affected
by the landslide.

Jim Barrett, the director of San Diego Water, said that 14 homes in
the area were without water as a result of the incident. A spokeswoman for
the city's wastewater department said there was no wastewater service in
the area.

Area's Geological Past

Retired San Diego State University geology professor Pat Abbott
told NBC 7/39 that there have been periodic landslides in the area since
1961. He said that all repairs that have been done have just been
"Band-Aids" and that the only way to truly fix the problem is to tear down
all the homes in the area and start over.

Abbot also said that the problem would likely happen again with the
next big earthquake on the Rose Canyon Fault.

At least three significant hill slides have occurred in the area
between 1961 and 1994, including a major failure in 1961 that destroyed
seven homes under construction.

Officials said Soledad Mountain Road between Desert View Drive and
Palomino Circle will be closed to traffic until further notice.

Previous Stories:

October 3, 2007: La Jolla
Residents Evacuate

October 3, 2007: Landslide
Levels La Jolla Neighborhood

October 3, 2007: What Causes
Landslides?

Copyright 2007 by NBCSandiego.com. The Associated
Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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