Land movement in Rancho Palos Verdes has been a concern for decades, but now homeowners are concerned that the rate of the movement might be accelerating.
“We’ll rebuild from this obviously,” said Sheri Hastings, who has been documenting the damage to her property. “Everybody will rebuild from this, but we do need to make it stop moving.”
Hastings lives in the bluffs above Abalone Canyon, where, within the last few weeks, massive cracks have started to form on walls and on the ground.
“I saw a small crack and over the week it expanded to about two inches and that was early January and it’s what it is here in late January,” said Hastings.
The land movement broke her water main, cracked concrete walls and created a fissure in the ground underneath one of her horse stables. Some scientists believe heavy rains since last winter have saturated the ground and accelerated the slide.
Data shows the rate of landslide movement is picking up, now moving an average of one to three feet per year.