A row of clifftop houses in Pacifica, California, have had to be condemned because parts of the bluff have begun to crumble dramatically into the ocean as powerful El Niño storms have drenched the coastline with heavy rains.
Drone footage captured on Saturday shows residents of Esplanade Avenue in Pacifica, just south of San Francisco, watching from a terrace as sections of cliff break off practically below where they stand.
On Monday, residents of the 20 apartments in the 310 Esplanade building found notes on their front door telling them that the erosion of the bluff had rendered their homes uninhabitable, and they were allowed inside only for the purpose of removing their belongings.
Happening now-- residents in apartments along cliffs in #Pacifica told to leave. City says not safe. #KTVU pic.twitter.com/rwA1oHET6j
— Noelle Walker (@noelleKTVU) January 25, 2016
“Recent bluff failures have resulted in unsafe conditions for living space at 310 Esplanade Avenue,” the city’s chief building official, Mike Cully, said in a statement on Monday. “Cavities in the bluff are forming to the south, west and north of the building and these critically over-steepened slopes are anticipated to fall back to more stable profiles in the next several days.”
On Friday, city officials declared a local state of emergency in Pacifica. In a statement, they said that several sites had suffered damage since 15 December, including part of the sea wall and several more private properties along Esplanade. During the last El Niño year, in 1998, several houses on Esplanade Avenue collapsed into the sea.
“We have no clue on where we’re going to go. I just moved in. I just got my place. Finally got my housing, and now I have to move out,” resident Monica Montoya told CBS News.
El Niño, a roughly quinquennial weather system caused by a cycle of warm water in the Pacific, has already wreaked havoc up the west coast. Heavy rains led to mudslides, flooding, and even sinkholes in San Diego and across southern California.
