Photo: Corbis Documentary RF
12 homes located along Southern California’s Palos Verdes Peninsula were destroyed over the weekend after a devastating landslide ravaged the region. According to KTLA, the houses, built along a cliff, could "fall into an adjacent canyon" at any moment. The Rolling Hills Estates of Los Angles County were immediately evacuated by emergency personnel on Saturday as they began to crumble and break apart with the land.
The L.A County Fire Department shared footage of the rubble, depicting multiple homes folding into the ground inching closer and closer to the canyon. In the video, viewers can see entire houses destroyed under the pressure of the landslide. Driveway cement, building infrastructure, and backyards that were completely unscathed hours prior to the disaster, are now cracked in half.
Janice Hahn, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, explained how fast the natural disaster impacted the neighborhood, leaving a dozen homes uninhabitable and at risk of falling into the canyon.
“To think that these homes were intact, you know, yesterday afternoon, and today you can hear the creaking, the cracking, the crumbling. They’re going to fall.” Sky footage of the peninsula shows just how close the homes are to crumbling over the cliff.
KTLA noted that the city is collaborating with Red Cross to aid the displaced residents that lost their homes as a result of the unexpected "earth movement." This is not the first time that a landslide has wreaked havoc on Palos Verdes. One 1956 landslide was so devastating that 140 homes were lost and the "earth continues to move there" to this very day.
Officials have yet to discover what caused the landslide.