The Rancho Palos Verdes Landslides Are a Horror 250,000 Years in the Making

 

Featured image credit: Dave Proffer

We’ve all heard horror stories of homeownership woe. A flooding upstairs bathroom crashing down into a home’s lower level. The spark of electrical wiring burning down a dream. Unseen black mold contaminating everything it touches. But you’ve heard of nothing quite like what’s happening right now in the coastal community of Rancho Palos Verdes. Once a bastion of multi-million dollar seaside properties, heightened landslide activity means Rancho Palos Verdes is threatening to slide away. Southern California Edison (SCE) is cutting power… in some cases, indefinitely. Los Angeles is throwing money at the problem. And Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency. As residents continue to dig in and fight for their beachfront homes, the awkward question remains: when do we declare Rancho Palos Verdes uninhabitable? 

Not Exactly a Recent Problem

Photo credit: Lizzie McVeigh

The volatility of Rancho Palos Verdes’s land isn’t a surprise. The area’s high frequency of landslides dates back over 250,000 years, which is probably why residents thought nothing would actually happen. At least not in their lifetimes. But in recent years, the landslide frequency and severity in Rancho Palos Verdes, particularly the Portuguese Bend area, has surged. A mid-1950s wave of construction accelerated the issue dramatically. Not that it needed help.  

Portuguese Bend sits atop four of five sub-slides that together form the Greater Portuguese Landslide Complex. And the accelerating landslides beneath Rancho Palos Verdes as a whole have been slipping for decades. When heavy storms pummeled the coast in 2023 and 2024, it further set the stage for cataclysmic pandemonium. Recognizing the potential for disaster, Newsom’s Office of Emergency Services has been working with both Los Angeles City and County for over a year to develop an appropriate response to the sliding land. Unfortunately, it rapidly became apparent that they’d underestimated the acceleration. 

At the Root of the Rancho Palos Verdes Landslide Activity

Speaking to KCRW, geologist Mike Phipps of geotechnical engineering firm Cotton, Shires and Associates clarified that the primary cause of the community’s landslide woes is a significant reservoir of water trapped beneath its earth. As the land continues to slide at a dramatic rate, it’s placing pressure on this trapped water. Now experts desperately need to relieve that pressure.  

 

Since June of this year, professionals contracted by the city of LA have been boring holes 250 feet into the unstable earth of Rancho Palos Verdes. Each burrow allows them a potential window into areas where water has collected. Once the problem areas are identified, the city plans to commission hydraugers, machines designed for landslide repair efforts, to dewater the wells. Since SCE has indefinitely cut power to a growing number of areas in Rancho Palos Verdes, the city is exploring options including generators and solar power to keep these hydraugers running. 

Currently, the landslide zone has expanded to encompass approximately 680 acres. But it’s slipping at the shocking rate of a foot per week. Under more intense scrutiny, Phipps’ team realized that the landslide beneath Portuguese Bend was nearly twice the depth they anticipated. 

Cutting Power as a Safety Measure

SCE, the electrical company providing service to the area, reached out to customers on July 30 to warn them about potential shutoffs. Just a month later, on August 31, SCE announced its intention to cut power to over 140 homes in the Portuguese Bend area. The order came in the wake of a spot fire resulting from power lines downed by a landslide near Narcisa Drive. 

Evacuation warnings came on the heels of the first power shutdown as subsequent shutdowns followed. On September 1, SCE followed through on its intention to cut power to 140 Portuguese Bend homes. On September 2, SCE cut power to an additional 105 homes in the Seaview area, though power in 34 of those homes was restored shortly. Most recently, the company turned off the power for 54 more Portuguese Bend homes.

Photo credit: Sarkis Gharibian

The Southern California Gas Co. has also been cutting service in the area, starting in late July when they terminated service to 135 Portuguese Bend homes. On September 6, they cut service to an additional 25 Portuguese Bend homes and, as a result of a gas line rupture, 29 Seaview homes. Even Cox Communication is shutting off services starting on September 9 with 146 Portuguese Bend homes. 

Refusal to Leave Rancho Palos Verdes

Rather than evacuate, several residents have adopted a bleak form of glamping to weather the crisis. Generators are out of stock across the area. And Starlink offers the best chance at an internet connection. 

But those who refuse to leave assume that the gas and electricity will one day be restored. In a handful of cases, these services have been terminated indefinitely. And at the rate that Rancho Palos Verdes is sliding, it’s possible more homes could join that list. 

Still, SCE harbors hope that they will one day be able to restore service to the highly unstable area. And underneath it all is that unspoken ghost: the reality that some people may not be returning home after all. Two homes have already been red-tagged as uninhabitable. 

 

The High Price of Building on a Landslide

Meanwhile, Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn has confirmed an estimate of approximately $1 billion to solve the catastrophe gripping Rancho Palos Verdes. It’s a high price tag, even for a community as wealthy as Rancho Palos Verdes. But with the ocean continuing to erode the coastline and the damage already wrought to the area, is forcing the habitability of Rancho Palos Verdes money well spent? It’s a question with no easy answer, yet one with which Los Angeles will need to contend over the coming weeks. In the meantime, many Rancho Palos Verdes holdouts remain optimistic that life in their community will get back on track, sooner or later.