San Diego landslide - 111 homes affected

San Diego landslide destroys homes

In all, about 111 homes have been affected in some way by the slide - suffering structural damage or having power and water interrupted, evacuations ordered or access limited.

A utility pole dangles over a sinkhole on a residential street in Mt. Soledad, a pricey neighborhood near La Jolla. San Diego Gas & Electric Co. workers shut off electricity in the area. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Time)

SAN DIEGO - 0900 - A massive landslide today morning destroyed two homes, damaged several others and ripped up more than 100 yards of a residential street on Soledad Mountain, a pricey neighborhood on the edge of La Jolla.

There were no reports of injuries. Homeowners had been warned Tuesday night to evacuate because the city geologist and a city consultant thought a landslide could be imminent.

Location: The road is buckled in the 5700 block of Soledad Mountain Road between Desert View Drive and Palomino Circle. Soledad Mountain Road cracked and massive amounts of earth began sliding eastward toward Desert View Drive. One home along Soledad Mountain Road slid off its foundation so that it was no longer visible from the street.

Sizeup: this was foreseen Two weeks ago, city officials sent a letter to homeowners advising them of the danger. On Tuesday, the city began warning residents prior to the event as workers went door to door with a letter warning residents in several houses that "you should not sleep in your homes effective immediately." On today, workers were at the site doing tests when the hill began its rapid slide.

San Diego Gas & Electric Co. workers turned off power as three poles fell. No gas leaks were reported. About 2,500 customers were without power after utility poles fell, officials said. Within hours power was restored to all but a few dozen.

Employees from the county's animal control department were deployed to rescue animals from homes; within hours, 10 dogs and 8 birds had been evacuated.

Current situation: The road is buckled in the 5700 block of Soledad Mountain Road between Desert View Drive and Palomino Circle. 9 homes red-tagged as uninhabitable, 19 had been yellow-tagged, with residents permitted inside only long enough to gather key possessions.

111 homes have been affected in some way by the slide - suffering structural damage or having power and water interrupted, evacuations ordered or access limited, Maurice Luque, spokesman for the San Diego Fire Department, said that firefighters evacuated 49 people from 55 homes. Luque estimated that residents would probably be able to return to all but two dozen of the homes by midnight. The same streets - Soledad Mountain Road and Desert View Drive - have been hit several times with landslides. In 1961, when homes were being built, a landslide destroyed seven of them under construction along Desert View Drive, which is parallel to and down the hill from Soledad Mountain Drive. Other slides occurred in the area in 1989 and 1994.

Geologists say the land beneath the homes and in the backyards is unstable because of forces remaining from when an earthquake caused by the Rose Canyon fault eons ago in effect created what is now called Soledad Mountain.

"This is a geologically active area," said city engineering geologist Rob Hawk.

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