Laguna Beach Homes Destroyed in Slide
By Don Kelsen
Times Staff Writer
June 1, 2005, 11:53 AM EDT
Homes slid down a hill in Laguna Beach shortly after dawn this morning, with live television showing images of large homes dangling into the air, foundations exposed by the moving earth.
There were reports of minor injuries. An eyewitness said at least 15 homes appeared to be totally destroyed.
The slide is in the area of Bluebird Canyon where a huge slide consumed a neighborhood on Oct. 1, 1978. A total of 24 families lost homes in that slide, and all but about six rebuilt there.
An hour after today's slide was reported, land was still moving along Flamingo Road. Television viewers saw a large tree fall over the yawning chasm. Lifeguards were among the first to respond, along with and police and firefighters
Heavy rains in the winter of 1977-78 slowly percolated down inside the hillside, making a subterranean grease slick of what had been a 1 1/2-inch thick layer of clay. About 3 1/2 acres of earth 50 feet thick slid in one massive chunk, which was compared to the top half of a layer cake slipping on the frosting below.
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The slide is in the area of Bluebird Canyon where a huge slide consumed a neighborhood on Oct. 1, 1978. A total of 24 families lost homes in that slide, and all but about six rebuilt there. Reminds me of the scene from the Holy Grail.
[The King gestures to the window.]
King of Swamp Castle: Some day, lad, all this will be yours.
Prince Herbert: What, the curtains?
King of Swamp Castle: When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. And that one sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, and then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up. And that's what you're going to get, Son, the strongest castle in all of England.