Calif. landslide damages homes, road

SAN DIEGO - A landslide swept away a chunk of an upscale hilltop neighborhood Wednesday, opening up a 50-yard chasm in a four-lane road, damaging or destroying nine homes and forcing the evacuations of 111 houses.

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No one was hurt in the collapse, which occurred the morning after city officials warned residents of four homes in the La Jolla neighborhood not to sleep in them because the land might give way.

The collapse shortly before 9 a.m. toppled power lines and left a 20-foot-deep ravine. Orange traffic cones and sections of big concrete pipes sat in the fissure slashing across the crumpled residential street.

Holli Weld was walking her son to preschool when the street collapsed.

"It was sinking as I was walking by," she said. "The street was sinking before our eyes."

Authorities said most residents had gone to work and only seven people were inside the homes when the collapse occurred.

The landslide cut a cone shape through the neighborhood of million-dollar homes, said Robert Hawk, a city engineering geologist. One home was destroyed, eight others were damaged and two more were in danger, but the problems appeared to be contained.

"It is fairly well-defined and localized," Hawk said.

Electricity was initially cut off to 2,400 customers but restored to 2,000 within two hours, according to San Diego Gas & Electric Co. Gas was cut off to about a dozen customers.

By early evening, authorities had escorted 49 people out of 55 homes, said Maurice Luque, a spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department. They had declared another 56 homes off-limits. Many homes that weren't in the immediate slide zone were yellow-tagged ― meaning that occupants could come and go, but not stay overnight.

A firm hired by the city last month was in the area this week after a large section of slope on Mount Soledad began to slip, Hawk said. 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.

The city sent warning letters to residents Monday and Tuesday, and the outside firm hired by the city recommended Tuesday that four homes be evacuated, Hawk said.

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.

The road serves as a busy shortcut between the surf neighborhood of Pacific Beach and the tony enclave of restaurants and shops in downtown La Jolla, a major tourist draw.

The road repairs will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, said mayoral spokesman Fred Sainz. Mayor Jerry Sanders planned to declare a state of emergency in the area, making the city eligible for state and federal aid.

The American Red Cross opened a shelter at La Jolla High School.