Residents of a California coastal community are begging for federal aid to stop a landslide from pushing their ritzy homes into the ocean.
Residents of Rancho Palos Verdes – which is the wealthiest retirement community in the US and also votes overwhelming Democrat – have been grappling with volatile land movement for six decades.
But unprecedented rainfall in 2023 and 2024 has created a dire situation, as landslide motion has accelerated and expanded to areas that were previously considered low risk.
Families have already been left with no electric, gas or internet as a result of the latest catastrophic land shift – and as those living in Rancho Palos Verdes try to salvage their homes, experts warn that the landslide will only get worse.
The neighborhoods along Los Angeles County’s Palos Verdes Peninsula have been sliding toward the Pacific Ocean at a frightening rate of four inches per week, NASA data from last fall has revealed.
Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California made this discovery using radar to assess land movement near the peninsula from September 18 to October 17, 2024.
The Portuguese Bend landslide – a nature preserve in Palos Verdes and active landslide since 1956 – has already forced hundreds of people out of their homes is a part of ‘an ancient complex’ of landslips south of Los Angeles, according to NASA.
But researchers found the geologically unstable area’s boundaries set in 2007 have become outdated, as the landslide has affected populated neighborhoods outside of those bounds.
Residents of Rancho Palos Verdes – which is considered the wealthiest retirement community in the US – have been grappling with the expanding landslide for six decades
NASA researchers found land movement has expanded into new areas and the landslide is moving toward the ocean at a rate of about four inches per week
‘In effect, we’re seeing that the footprint of land experiencing significant impacts has expanded, and the speed is more than enough to put human life and infrastructure at risk,’ JPL landslide scientist Alexander Handwerger said in a statement.
Pictured: A landslide in Palos Verdes Estates in 2023
Peggy Sivert, an artist who has lived on the Portuguese Bend for 30 years, told the DailyMail.com that watching different neighborhoods crumble over the past year and a half has been grueling.
‘It was pretty horrifying,’ she said. ‘And it left the whole community scrambling.’
The land shifts have caused roads to split and homes to collapse, forcing residents to flee or pay for costly repairs.
‘We had a really nice rural country [neighborhood], with beautiful dwellings. Now, all the water pipes are above ground, just along the street. The gas lines are above ground,’ Sivert shared.
‘People have motorhomes in their front driveways because they had to move out of their house. The roads have been reduced to gravel.’
Sivert’s home, which falls within the original landslide-risk zone, has been relatively unscathed by the land movement that left more 260 houses damaged, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The longtime resident said she has been preparing for this kind of disaster since moving there. Her home is equipped with steel beams that can be adjusted when the land shifts.
But, like nearly 300 of her neighbors, she was not spared from being forced off the grid when Rancho Palos Verdes properties had their electricity, gas, water and internet cut last fall.
A home in Los Angeles, which was spared during the apocalyptic fires, was split in two this week by a mudslide in the aftermath of the blaze
Donald Trump blasted Democrat governor Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris for not doing more to help the community
Sivert recalled: ‘First, it was the gas company, then it was the electric company, and then it was the Internet. So we lost all three things within about a month.
‘All the electric poles were askew because the land was moving. And the Edison Company just gave us two days’ warning and said, ‘We’re out, we’re cutting off your electricity.”
It took several months for residents to get their power turned back on, but some are still lacking heat or electricity.
Those living in Rancho Palos Verdes and in surrounding cities have been trying to help those struggling to recover from landslide damage.
Sivert curated an auction that raised about $30,000 to fund solar panels for power dewatering wells, which dry out the city’s ground to prevent further land shifts.
The Rotary Club of Palos Verdes Peninsula has raised more than $200,000 to directly allocate to people whose properties were devastated, the club’s secretary Julia Parton told the DailyMail.com.
Beyond charitable efforts, local, state and federal agencies have gotten involved in the matter.
Donald Trump, who owns a golf course in the areas, blasted the Democrat governor Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris in September before the presidential election for not doing more to help the community.
‘I want to express my support for all of the families affected by the landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes,’ Trump said. ‘This area is very solid, but you go a couple of miles down, you’ll see something that’s pretty amazing. The mountain is moving. And it could be stopped but they need some help from the government.’
California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Rancho Palos Verdes the same month ‘to protect public safety amid ongoing land movement that has resulted in disrupted utility services and evacuation warnings for impacted residents.’
Protestors rallied on January 24, demanding more state and federal aid for landslide relief
City Council approved the use of $1.6 million loan to drill eight to 10 new dewatering wells in its Abalone Cove Landslide Abatement District, according to the city website.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn’s office gave Rancho Palos Verdes $2.8 million for an emergency relief program that offered to $10,000 per eligible recipient.
Since July 1, 2024, the city has spent at least $33 million from its own reserves to handle the landslide, the LAist reported.
FEMA allocated $42 million toward a Voluntary Property Buyout Program for people affected by the Portuguese Bend Landslide in October 2024.
But residents and city officials do not believe they are getting enough support, with some claiming other natural disasters have taken attention away from landslide relief.
The FEMA allocation ‘doesn’t go around very far, since these are multi-million dollar houses,’ Sivert said.
The city anticipates being able to buy out about 23 homes with the FEMA funding.
Rancho Palos Verdes Public Information Officer Megan Barnes told DailyMail.com: ‘The City continues to call on both the state and federal government for financial assistance.
Keefer and his neighbors have been faced with endless road closures, damaged homes, loss of power and trying to find a way to store food safely
The coastal community has been blighted by landslides since torrential rain hit the area in spring of last year. (pictured: An aerial view of damage in Rancho Palos Verdes)
‘While we know the landslide cannot be stopped, we believe it can be slowed significantly with remediation measures. It is financial support for these measures that we are seeking.’
As President Donald Trump visited Los Angeles to assess wildfire damage at the end of last month, Rancho Palos Verdes residents rallied outside of Trump National Golf Course, demanding federal help.
‘We need to stop the red tape. We cannot discriminate between disasters,’ community member Eva Albuja told KTLA 5.
The small protest consisted of about six women holding signs that read ‘Where is our help?’ and ‘Landslide help! SOS.’
‘This is a real thing in California just like fires and everything else, landslides are a real thing right now and we need help with dealing with it,’ Sheri Hastings, another one of the demonstrators, shared with the outlet.
Protestors claimed that the state was forgetting about them, but in the governor said he has been ‘coordinating with the city and county for nearly a year to support the response to the land movement.’
Barnes said that the JPL’s study ‘confirms and validates what the City has been observing in its robust GPS survey monitoring of the landslide.’
But less rain and the installation of dewatering wells have reportedly decelerated the Portuguese Bend landslide by three percent from December 2024.
Pictured: The cracked streets of Palos Verdes, a community that has seen its power shut off and homes destroyed
Climate change-related factors – including sea level rise – may worsen conditions for coastal neighborhoods. Pictured: The projected rise in sea levels in the Palos Verdes area over the next century
Since September, more than 125 million gallons of groundwater has been removed.
‘The City is hopeful that this trend holds with its dewatering and winterization measures and continues to urge state and federal agencies to financially support these efforts,’ Barnes said.
Despite the city’s affluent reputation, many residents have been struggling to financially recover from the blow of trying to repair – or losing – their properties.
‘When they say, all the poor rich people over here in Portuguese band. Yeah, come live in my house!’ one resident told the DailyMail.com from a community center where she was charging her generator’s battery.
Aside from NASA, experts have weighed in on the situation, predicting that climate change-related factors – including sea level rise – may worsen conditions for coastal neighborhoods.
Central Climate’s Vice President of Communications Peter Girard told DailyMail.com: ‘As coastal properties lose land to coastal erosion, the risk of homes and roadways collapsing into the sea becomes more acute.
‘And because sea level rise is projected to accelerate in the coming decades, the loss of land associated with its impact would be expected to speed up, too.’
California-based civil engineer and landslide expert Steve Viani told the DailyMail.com that nothing will ever completely stop the progression of the landslide.
But the city’s geologist ‘does not anticipate a sudden catastrophic landslide, but continued slow creeping,’ Barnes explained.
Despite uncertainty and danger looming over Rancho Palos Verdes, residents are reluctant to leave their homes.
Despite the city’s affluent reputation, many residents have been struggling to financially recover from the blow of trying to repair – or losing – their properties
Peggy Sivert, an artist who has lived on the Portuguese Bend for 30 years, told the DailyMail.com that she’s watched her neighborhood crumble
Sivert said: ‘They don’t want to move. Some of the houses, the people just can’t afford to fix them or some of the people just don’t want to leave. But they’re they have to make a decision.’
The US Geological Survey (USGS) revealed that after the Palisades Fire, northern California homeowners should be worried about the possibility of landslides.
Landslides caused from burn scars left after the fires are out and rainfall returns will become a bigger issue in the future, according to the agency.
‘After compiling one year’s worth of soil and sediment erosion quantities occurring after large California wildfires between 1984 and 2021, scientists found that postfire erosion has accelerated over time, particularly in northern California, likely reflecting both the increase in wildfire in the state and the frequency of wet water years,’ the study reads.
