Heavy rains may have accelerated what geologists have predicted
for several years.
March 20, 1998 - Laguna Niguel - With the terrifying sounds of splintering wood and shattering
glass, a terraced slope supporting a community of upscale homes partially
collapsed in a predawn landslide Thursday, demolishing two houses and toppling
five condominium units at the base of the hill.
"You could hear my house creak. You could see the retaining walls
move," said Greg Burns, 21, one of 24 people ordered to evacuate about
3 a.m. as the hillside crumbled around his Crown Cove condo. No one was
injured.
But residents said they believe the heavy rains beginning in December
accelerated the collapse.
"All day long yesterday, the firetrucks, cop cars and engineers
told us we were fine," said Michelle Bennett, who rents one of the
condos and was ordered to leave in the middle of the night. "Then at
3:15 a.m., they began pounding on our doors and yelling at us to get out,
get out.
"I sat here and watched those houses fall down at 4 a.m.,"
she said. "Now my house is holding up this hill and those mansions
on top."
Residents wrenched from their condos because of the slide were allowed
back in later to hastily wrap televisions in blankets, bag dishes and toss
pillows onto piles at the side of a road while they awaited moving trucks
to cart them out of their endangered units.
The man-made hill, which has been the subject of lawsuits since 1994
because of shifting and cracking in walls and pavement below it, began noticeably
moving after storms in December, prompting the evacuation of five houses
on the ridge top and five condos at the base. In February, residents of
four more condos were asked to move.
On Wednesday afternoon there was more movement, and a retaining wall
began to slump, triggering several more voluntary evacuations.
About 1:45 a.m. Thursday, Sandra Paulin, a single mother of two, awoke
in her condo to the sound of cracking and popping glass.
"It was like gunshots," said Paulin, whose dwelling was spared.
"It was a terrible, terrible noise-- things snapping, glass breaking."
The sound was the ground collapsing, toppling two of the evacuated houses
at the top of the hill.
"When that hill went, it sounded like thunder," said Ann Andrews,
a ridge-top resident of Via Estoril. "I was terrified."
Just after 3 a.m., firefighters told residents of two of the condo buildings--
eight units in all-- to evacuate, giving them only minutes to leave with
keys, valuables and precious belongings.
Within an hour, the shifting earth upended the five condos that had been
evacuated in December, slamming their second-story balconies into the ground
and shredding the 8-inch-thick asphalt like ribbon.
Condo association president Michael DeStefano, who was ordered to evacuate
in December, was back at the complex Thursday to meet with city officials
and residents.
"Everyone kept telling us, 'The hill's going to let loose.' We just
didn't know when," DeStefano said.
On behalf of residents, the Crown Valley Parkway Condominium Assn. is
suing the developers of Niguel Summit and that neighborhood's homeowners
association for alleged defective grading and workmanship that the plaintiffs
say contributed to the failure of the hill.
Attorney Rachel Miller, representing the condo owners, said Thursday
that the developers improperly packed the 275,000 tons of fill used to build
the slope from a 2% grade to a 30% grade. Among those sued were home builder
J.M. Peters Inc., now owned by Capital Pacific Holdings, and Hon Development.
The condos were constructed in 1981, according to residents and attorneys,
before the slope was built up.
In a statement Thursday, Capital Pacific said that insurance companies
for the developers have agreed to pay relocation costs for residents who
were moved in December and that experts have been hired to study the hillside.
A spokesman for Capital Pacific in Newport Beach said the company bought
Peters in 1992, five years after the homes, on Via Estoril and adjacent
streets, were built. The statement also said Capital Pacific had purchased
Hon's interest in the development.
Walking with a group of geologists Thursday along Via Estoril, Kathy
Strong, an attorney for the Niguel Summit Homeowners Assn., would only say
that "our main concern at this time is looking out for the safety of
the homeowners."
City Manager Tim Casey said both developments were built before Laguna
Niguel incorporated in 1989. The city is not party to the lawsuits and is
not involved in the legal squabble over the filled-in slope and engineered
terraces.
"A lot of [local development] was terraced, but I can't quantify
it for you," he said. "It's a hilly community."
The two houses that tumbled down the hillside were on Via Estoril, several
hundred feet above the condos. Both had been evacuated in December, as were
three other houses on the street, where the hillside has been eroding for
several years.
Two more have since been pronounced uninhabitable, and the owners of
an additional two have been urged to leave by officials' posting of yellow
tags. On Thursday, throngs gathered along Clubhouse Drive, where the hillside's
erosion laid bare the foundations of three of the evacuated homes.
One of those belonged to Tim Rager and his family. Most of their backyard
had disappeared, and the home was basically a loss.
"It's going to be impossible for us to keep it," Rager said
as he watched emergency vehicles drive onto Via Estoril. "How can you
put a dollar value on how frustrating it is to know that we will be forced
to move to a place where we don't want to live?"
Rager said he moved out after the first El Nino rainstorm in December.
"We were told that the slopes were starting to experience significant
movement," he said. "Some said that we were overreacting by moving."
The Ragers and other Via Estoril residents filled up the moving vans,
left the neighborhood and waited.
In recent months, cracked patios and buckling pavement have been commonplace
on the street-- enough so that hilltop resident Andrews keeps a video camera
handy to document the damage.
So when the hills continued to slide, she grabbed the camera and videotaped
the disaster.
"It was just a big, dark rolling mass," she said. "It
looked like it was going in slow motion."
As the time passed, Andrews' tension grew. Two doors down, city officials
placed a red tag on the front door of a neighbor's home, declaring it unsafe
for occupation.
Then her next door neighbor was advised to leave.
"I'm getting nervous, I'm getting nervous," said Andrews, as
she watched neighbors hauling furniture into a moving van.
Times staff writer Bonnie Hayes contributed to this
story.
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