(OPINION) What in the world has been happening in Rancho Palos Verdes? When I heard that the land was “moving” there, it immediately got my attention, because I have been warning about geological instability along the California coast for more than a decade.
What is taking place has been described as an ongoing “landslide”, but that term simply does not do it justice. Others are calling what we are witnessing “land movement” on a massive scale, and I think that is much more accurate.
According to FOX 11 in southern California, this “land movement” is breaking gas lines, cracking roads and causing homes to sink…
According to experts, land movement in Rancho Palos Verdes continues to accelerate. As a result, roads and homes continue to crack and sink. On Friday, FOX 11 exclusively joined Alpha Structural to view the land movement up close in a neighborhood near Portuguese Bend.
“You have to think to yourself, this isn’t real,” said Damien Hammond, from Alpha Structural. “That’s how I feel here. I feel like I’m on a movie set, but in reality, this is 25 peoples’ homes.”
That last quote really nailed it. At this point, Rancho Palos Verdes really does look like it belongs on the set of a science fiction movie. This is a slow-motion natural disaster that authorities are powerless to stop, and the damage is getting worse with each passing day.
If you visit Rancho Palos Verdes you will discover that there is a giant “chasm” that is now running right through the middle of a neighborhood…
Drone video from the Alpha Structural team shows essentially a giant crack cutting through the neighborhood.
“This whole part just pulled away from over here, opened up a chasm,” said Joe Demers, a civil engineer with Alpha Structural. “This whole area moved about 5 feet in the last year or so, but then it really accelerated. In the last couple months, it’s moved another 4 or 5 feet.”
I have never heard of anything quite like this. This is something that you really need to see for yourself… Normally, authorities will get concerned if the ground in a particular area is moving a few inches a year.
In this case, the ground is literally moving about a foot per week… Within the last year or so, experts believe some areas have dropped more than 12 feet. Recently, experts have said the land is moving about 12 inches per week. (READ MORE)
