California declares state of emergency over Rancho Palos Verdes landslide
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for the city of Rancho Palos Verdes Tuesday after the risk of ongoing landslides recently forced authorities to shut off power for more than 200 homes in two of the city’s neighborhoods, with some facing indefinite power outages.
In the declaration, Newsom said land movement under the city that sits atop the bluffs of the Palos Verdes Peninsula has accelerated significantly following severe storms in 2023 and 2024 and “is now sliding at an average of 9 to 12 inches per week.”
The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services has been coordinating with emergency response officials in Los Angeles County for nearly a year, supporting the local assistance center, facilitating a federal mitigation grant to support the recent groundwater construction work in the area, and helping officials with initial damage estimates, the declaration states.
The power shutoff not only affects the day-to-day lives of residents but also poses new safety issues, as power is needed for telecommunications lines, the sewer system and the pumps that help slow land movement by expelling the groundwater that geologists say causes it.
The declaration issued early Tuesday comes two days after Southern California Edison announced plans to cut power to 140 homes in the Portuguese Bend neighborhood, where gas service was shut off a about month ago, and 105 homes in the Seaview neighborhood. The shutoffs are designed to reduce the risk that the shifting earth could spark a wildfire if power lines remained electrified, officials said.
The emergency declaration instructs all state agencies to provide equipment and assistance to local authorities to respond to the emergency and requires residents in the affected neighborhoods to obey the orders of emergency officials.
Gas was abruptly cut off to 135 Rancho Palos Verdes homes due to landslide movement. Now, losing electricity is a real, and dangerous, possibility.
While Edison officials say there wasn’t one issue that led to their decision, they noted that a small fire began near Narcissa Drive in Portuguese Bend Thursday when a power line fell and ignited nearby vegetation. It was quickly extinguished, Rancho Palos Verdes officials stated.
In Seaview, the power shutoffs affect 47 homes for 24 hours, 38 properties for one to three weeks and 20 houses indefinitely.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn had been pleading with the governor to visit the affected community and “see the landslide for himself.” She said in a statement Tuesday that the “declaration comes just at the right time as people are not only seeing their homes crumble around them, but have now also been cut off from power. This situation is bigger than the [c]ity or even the [c]ounty.”
Edison set up an information site Tuesday at the Ladera Linda Community Center just above the Seaview neighborhood. Among the visitors to the facility was Seaview resident Paul Midford.
Midford said he lost power just after 7 p.m. Monday, which he said has been difficult, “but so far not bad.” His home is part of the properties that will not have power for several weeks.
“The things in the freezer and the refrigerator haven’t gone bad yet, but it’s just a matter of time and that’s going to be a mess we’re going to have to take care of,” Midford.
For one night, he said, he relied on emergency lamps to light his house but lacked electricity and internet and had only spotty cell service.
Midford said his family was deciding whether to temporarily stay in a nearby hotel as the situation unfolds.
The rapidly accelerating complex of landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes has created an unforeseen outcome: a new coastline as the seafloor is pushed upward.
Before Monday, it was difficult to determine if his house would be affected by the outage. Midford said he checked his Edison customer account online but there wasn’t an alert that his home would lose power. He also called the customer service line but he said the person on the other end of the line couldn’t definitively tell him whether his home would lose power or not.
The city issued an evacuation warning for the Portuguese Bend neighborhood, but many residents have decided to stay in their homes for now and some are staying with the support of generators.
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