Houses slide into canyon after landslide tears apart dozen properties in wealthy Los Angeles suburb

A dozen homes torn apart by earth movement on Southern California’s Palos Verdes Peninsula

Multiple homes have slid into a Southern California canyon after a dozen properties in a wealthy enclave were torn apart by shifting earth.

The homes in the Los Angeles County city of Rolling Hills Estates were hastily evacuated by firefighters on Saturday when cracks began appearing in structures and the ground.

Walls and roofs began to fail as the land on the Palos Verdes Peninsula continued to slide, the county Fire Department showed in video released on social media.

A television news cameraman gets ready for a live broadcast across a ravine from severely damaged homes in Rolling Hills Estates on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County (AP)

“I thought I was crazy,” Katie Schwartz told The Los Angeles Times after she saw cracks appear in the walls of her home and called the fire department to come and investigate. “They came out and said, ‘You’re not overreacting’.”

“Just shock,” Ms Schwartz told the newspaper on Monday morning as she viewed the damage to her red-tagged home which she and her family had to evacuate. “It just changes your whole life.”

Los Angeles County Fire Captain Sheila Kelliher told reporters that some properties were still on the move.

“Things are still shifting there,” Capt Kelliher said. “The hillside is still moving. We don’t know the extent of that movement, but geographical engineers are on their way to the site to further assess the situation.”

HOMES THREATENED by sliding hillside | FS106 | Pear Tree Ln #RollingHillsEstates | #LACoFD units were on scene monitoring situation. 12 homes evacuated. pic.twitter.com/ruXIhKD82m

— L.A. County Fire Department (@LACoFDPIO) July 9, 2023

David Zee told the newspaper that he and his family were given 20 minutes by officials to evacuate their home on Saturday night.

“It’s just amazing how quickly this all happened,” said Mr Zee, 52, who only moved into the neighbourhood two months ago.

“It’s a terrible way to meet your neighbours,” he said. “The good thing is that nobody was hurt, all the neighbours got out safely.”

Thank you supervisor @SupJaniceHahn for your prompt and unwavering support to @CityofRHE and our residents. We have never seen this kind of damage to our infrastructure. Mother Nature has not been kind to several homes. They are about to be at the bottom of the canyon very soon.

— Frank V. Zerunyan, J.D. LL.D. (hc) (@VZerunyan) July 9, 2023

City councilmember Frank Zerunyan took to Twitter on Sunday after the evacuations.

“We have never seen this kind of damage to our infrastructure,” he tweeted. “Mother Nature has not been kind to several homes. They are about to be at the bottom of the canyon very soon.”

A patio of a house in Rolling Hills Estates is severely damaged after a landslide on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County (AP)

The city was collaborating with county agencies and the Red Cross to support displaced residents, Mayor Britt Huff said in a statement.

Officials did not know yet what caused the earth movement, said Pete Goodrich, a Rolling Hills Estates building official.

LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn also returned to the scene on Monday.

“There’s nothing we can do, I’ve been told, to stop what’s happening,” Ms Hahn said. “That’s why it’s wait-and-see at that point. Waiting for the homes to fall.”

Damaging landslides have occurred previously on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, which rises high above the Pacific on the county's south coast and offers residents spectacular views of the ocean and greater Los Angeles.

A landslide that began in 1956 destroyed 140 homes in the Portuguese Bend area of the city of Rancho Palos Verdes, and earth continues to move there.

Among other notable earth movements on the peninsula, a 2011 slide severed the blufftop ocean road near White Point in the San Pedro section of Los Angeles.