LOS ANGELES — Two families were forced to leave their homes after a giant piece of the hillside in Pacific Palisades broke off in a landslide, the result of an exceptionally rainy winter in a region prone to erosion.
The neighborhood, nestled between the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, is popular among celebrities and middle-class families alike. It is known for spectacular views — and for precarious construction.
The Los Angeles Times reported:
A 20,000-square-foot piece of hillside crashed into a Pacific Palisades home on Sunday night and displaced a family of eight and an elderly man, fire officials said.
Debris and dirt “sloughed off” the hillside of a home in the 900 block of North Las Lomas Avenue and struck the home below, Nicholas Prange, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department said in a statement. No injuries were reported.
Breitbart News visited the area and witnessed construction crews providing assistance at the home at the top of the hill, where a significant portion of the back yard had slid away. Dirt piled up against the other home, below.
Two homes in Pacific Palisades, California, were rendered uninhabitable after a landslide saw 20,000 square feet of hillside shift, removing the back yard of one home and nearly burying another. March 28, 2023 (Joel Pollak / Breitbart News)
The geology of the area makes it vulnerable to landslides, especially during particularly rainy years. In addition to an earthquake fault, it also has unstable rock formations made of sandstone, shale, and conglomerates.
California experienced its 13th “atmospheric river” this week, as moist air from the central Pacific was carried to the cool continental mass, falling as rain on lower elevations, and as snow on higher elevations.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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