Laguna Beach

"Calif. Landslide Sends 12 Homes Crashing
By BEN FOX, Associated Press Writer 3 minutes ago
A landslide sent at least 12 expensive homes crashing down a hill early Wednesday and damaged 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.
"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, some 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
"I could see one house, huge, we call it the mausoleum, 5,000 square feet or more. It had buckled, the retaining wall in the front of it was cracked. It just looked like the whole house was going," she said.
Laguna Beach, its shoreline dotted with coves and tide pools, has some of Southern California's most desired real estate, but it has also grappled with fires and mudslides over the years. Wednesday's slide came on the heels of a near-record winter rainy season.
The damaged homes, located in an area called Blue Bird Canyon about 15 blocks from the ocean, are worth about $1.75 million, which the mayor described as "average" for the area.
Twelve homes were lost and 15 damaged, Mayor Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider said. Forty more homes were evacuated.
Multistory homes came to rest at odd angles, some nearly intact, others broken apart and trailing debris. Around the edges of the gash at the top of the hill, several homes jutted out with no earth below parts of their foundations.
One house, snapped in two, had an American flag fluttering from a balcony. One road simply stopped in midair, beneath it a tangle of debris. Trees, cars and roadway also spilled down.
"We believe we evacuated the people who could be in harm's way," Pearson-Schneider told KTTV.
"My understanding is that we received a phone call from a couple that began feeling slippage. They were quite upset, as you could imagine, and we just told them to get out," he said. People began reporting problems around 5 a.m. and the hillside gave way between 6 and 7 a.m.
One man, clutching his cat, told KABC-TV his home looked "like it buckled in the middle and broke in half. We ran from the house. It started coming down."
Two injured children were admitted to South Coast Medical Center in Laguna Beach in good condition, hospital spokeswoman Maggie Baumann said. A third person there, a 71-year-old woman whose house was destroyed, wasn't injured in the landslide but appeared to be under emotional stress, she said.
The neighborhoods have been hit before by flooding, mudslides and wildfire. Several homes were red-tagged as uninhabitable in February during the second rainiest season on record in Southern California."

Okay, friends, I have a couple of questions. First, do homeowners in these slide areas have special slide insurance available? People who live in areas designated flood plains by FEMA do have flood insurance available (and required for a mortgage). My background in the insurance business just brings up questions like this.

My second question is: WHY do people build in these places to begin with? In a resort town in New Mexico where my family has a place, expansion has taken place by building along the 100-year-flood plain beside the river running through the town. Is this the "Oh-it-won't-happen-to-me" attitude in play, or what? Why would one build on a hill that has slid downhill previously? It must be the view. It must be the prestige. It must be that one feels bulletproof. Oh, and by the way, that resort community in Red River faces flooding this year because extraordinary warm weather is melting the snowpack much faster than usual. Bet those folks will rebuild after they dry everything out, too.

Why do I now live within 50 miles of the ocean, in hurricane territory? Why did I grow up in Tornado alley and spend 39 years there? I guess it's just the victory of the human spirit that we seek places of beauty, even if there is danger involved. In fact, maybe the possibility of danger is a greater attraction. Anyway, I have compassion for those whose houses have slid away today, and for those facing flooding as well. I just don't understand why they'd rebuild.

Your mileage may vary. dblrddonna