In a landslide-stricken town in California, life is like camping with no power, gas

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, California — Nick Mardesic and his family live off the grid. At night, they only need a flashlight to get light. For a hot meal and a shower, they have to drive several kilometers to his parents’ house.

The family doesn’t live in a rugged location, but on a picturesque peninsula on the outskirts of Los Angeles. And they’re not off the grid by choice. Their power and gas have been cut off because accelerating landslides from two years of heavy rains threaten to destroy tens of millions of homes over the Pacific Ocean.

Mardesic has been fighting for months to keep his house standing. Parts of his front yard have sunk about 3.5 feet (1 meter). Deep cracks snake through the walls of his house, and a piece of drywall fell from his ceiling. The sidewalk and one end of his driveway have caved in, leaving a gaping hole that exposes an underground water pipe. His bedroom is on the verge of collapsing, he said, so he has been putting wood on a beam under the house and jacking it up. In the past five months, he has spent about $50,000 to keep his house up.

“It’s something you see in a movie,” he said outside the home he shares with his wife and two children, ages 3 and 1. “It’s almost unbelievable … just to see your house sinking.”

The landslides are the latest disaster to hit California, a state already battling worsening wildfires and extreme weather conditions ranging from heat waves to torrential rains that have caused flooding and mudslides in the past year.

In Rancho Palos Verdes, entire homes have collapsed or been ripped apart. Walls have shifted and large cracks have appeared in the ground. Evacuation warnings are in effect and parts of the community have lost their power and gas turned off. Gas service was cut off to more residents on Thursday, with more expected on Friday. Others are facing temporary water shutoffs to repair sewers.

Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Tuesday.

Jill Carlton, who has lived in the community for nearly 30 years, said it’s good that the issue has finally gotten the governor’s attention.

“They’ve been pushing him for a long time and hopefully he’ll come down and actually visit us,” Carlton said, but she’s disappointed that “there’s still no help for the individuals.”

The declaration instead opens up state resources, such as emergency personnel, equipment and services. In an email, the city of Rancho Palos Verdes said it continues to urge state leaders and agencies to ask President Joe Biden to declare a federal disaster, which would activate resources and possible individual assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Nearly 70 years ago, the Portuguese Bend landslide in Rancho Palos Verdes was caused by the construction of a road through the area, which sits on top of an old landslide. It destroyed 140 homes at the time, and the land has been shifting ever since.

But the once slow-moving landslides began to accelerate rapidly after torrential rains battered Southern California over the past two years. The land that once shifted an average of several inches a year now moves between 9 and 12 inches (22.8 and 30.48 centimeters) a week.

The rapid movement forced the dismantling of earlier this year Chapel of the Pioneersa historic landmark designed by Frank Lloyd Wright’s son, Lloyd Wright. The scenic roads that wind through the city are also curved. Signs warn drivers of potholes and shifting, misshapen terrain.

“Cyclists and motorcycles, use extreme caution,” reads one sign. “Rough road” and “Slide area,” read other signs.

Mike Phipps, the city’s geologist, said the average rate of movement has slowed a bit, but is still about 4 feet (1.2 meters) per month. “It’s still a significant amount of movement. It’s just that we’ve reached full speed and are cruising now,” he said.

Some residents believe leaks are to blame for the devastation in their community. They claim that multiple burst water and sewage pipes that were not repaired quickly or adequately saturated the ground and contributed to the land displacement.

Residents recently filed an objection court case against the city, its water supplier and others, alleging, among other things, that negligence and their failure to act were “substantial factors” in accelerating the landslide “and the resulting damage to residents’ homes and lives.”

The city says it does not comment on ongoing litigation.

Jeffrey R. Knott, professor emeritus of geological sciences at California State University, Fullerton, likened the argument to the chicken-and-egg dilemma.

“Did the landslide move and break the pipe? Or did the pipe break and the landslide move?” he said. “It’s extremely difficult to prove.”

According to Knott, water leaks could contribute to the acceleration, but the significance of this is unknown.

Last year, the city received a $23.3 million grant from FEMA for a project that officials hoped would slow the land movement by removing trapped water underground and preventing future rain from seeping in. But crews recently discovered a deeper, wider landslide.

“It’s like a freight train coming down the hill. It’s billions of tons of soil,” Phipps said. “It’s extremely challenging to stop that.”

Mayor John Cruikshank said finding funding for solutions is a challenge, as is preparing for the upcoming rainy season.

“The climate is changing and we need to be more resilient,” he said. “We can’t always rely on old systems like overhead wire and underground natural gas.”

In the meantime, residents are faced with difficult choices.

People whose homes collapsed or were badly damaged were forced to leave. Others, like Carlton neighbors, left after their utilities were shut off indefinitely. Some are relying on generators to keep the lights on and propane for cooking.

Others, like Mardesic, are hoping for relocation assistance and said they are stuck without help and can’t afford anything in Southern California’s expensive housing market. Mardesic’s home was valued at about $2.3 million before the damage, he said.

“What else can we do but keep repairing our house and trying to stay here?” said Mardesic, a maintenance supervisor. “We have nowhere to go.”

For now, his family wants to move to the pool house at the back, as it has less risk of falling off the slope.

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