La Jolla Slide: A Homeowner’s Nightmare

Last week’s landslide that gobbled up a huge chunk of Soledad Mountain Road in La Jolla, CA, is just one natural catastrophe that is in the back of  every homeowner’s mind. What happens if your home — the biggest asset in most people’s lives — is swallowed up by the earth? Or is it rendered useless before something tragic happens, but after it is tagged as unsafe to live? According to NBC11.com, 111 homes in this La Jolla hillside have been evacuated. Many of them are valued close to a million dollars.

Reportedly, slides in this area have occurred between 1961 and 1994, with a major slide in ‘61 that destroyed seven homes under construction! Most recently, the city noticed cracks on Soledad Mountain road in July and paid closer attention when a small slide occurred 3-4 weeks ago, prompting the city to send letters to residents on Monday and Tuesday, warning of a major slide event. On Wednesday morning, the slide occurred.

One Zillow user was empathetic enough to leave a comment on one of the homes that appears to have been devastated.

How to fix this mess? According to info provided in the NBC11.com article, San Diego State University geology professor Pat Abbot is quoted as saying,  ”… all repairs that have been done [since 1961] have just been “Band-Aids” and that the only way to truly fix the problem is to to tear down all the homes in the area and start over.”

My question: If this was a known slide area, why did the city continue to allow people to build on this site?

(Photo courtesy CNN.com)