LAGUNA BEACH, California (AP) -- A landslide sent 18 multimillion-dollar houses crashing down a hill in Southern California early Wednesday. Homeowners alarmed by the sound of walls and pipes coming apart ran for their lives in their nightclothes. At least four people suffered minor injuries.
About 1,000 people in 350 other homes in the Blue Bird Canyon area were evacuated as a precaution.
In addition to the houses destroyed, several homes were damaged and a street was wrecked when the earth gave way around daybreak in this Orange County community about 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
"The pipes started making funny noises and the toilet sounded like it was about to explode," said Carrie Joyce, one of those who fled. "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."
Residents were alerted to the slide shortly before 7 a.m. by popping and cracking as power poles went down, homes fractured and trees disappeared. People grabbed their children, pets and belongings and fled.
"People were running down the hill like a bomb had gone off. I mean literally, they had their bed clothes on," said Robert Pompeo, 56, a retiree whose home is about 75 yards from the ridge where the most homes were lost.
The cause of the disaster was under investigation. But Ed Harp of the U.S. Geological Survey said it was almost certainly related to the winter storms that drenched Southern California.
Laguna Beach has been dry since a trace of rainfall nearly a month ago, but before that, Southern California had its second-rainiest season on record. The region has gotten nearly 28 inches of rain since last July, more than double the annual average.
The slide occurred about a mile from the beach on steep sandstone hills covered with large homes.
that sux
About 1,000 people in 350 other homes in the Blue Bird Canyon area were evacuated as a precaution.
In addition to the houses destroyed, several homes were damaged and a street was wrecked when the earth gave way around daybreak in this Orange County community about 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
"The pipes started making funny noises and the toilet sounded like it was about to explode," said Carrie Joyce, one of those who fled. "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."
Residents were alerted to the slide shortly before 7 a.m. by popping and cracking as power poles went down, homes fractured and trees disappeared. People grabbed their children, pets and belongings and fled.
"People were running down the hill like a bomb had gone off. I mean literally, they had their bed clothes on," said Robert Pompeo, 56, a retiree whose home is about 75 yards from the ridge where the most homes were lost.
The cause of the disaster was under investigation. But Ed Harp of the U.S. Geological Survey said it was almost certainly related to the winter storms that drenched Southern California.
Laguna Beach has been dry since a trace of rainfall nearly a month ago, but before that, Southern California had its second-rainiest season on record. The region has gotten nearly 28 inches of rain since last July, more than double the annual average.
The slide occurred about a mile from the beach on steep sandstone hills covered with large homes.
that sux
