A Newport Beach home that was badly damaged in a mudslide earlier this month was demolished Thursday.
The landslide was reported on the morning of March 3 after days of downpours in the area. Photos from the scene showed that a large chunk of dirt had broken away from the hillside behind the home on Galaxy Drive.
Pieces of the backyard had also fallen down the hillside.
No injuries were reported, but the home was red tagged, city officials said.
Crews remove belongings and furniture from the red-tagged home on Galaxy Drive.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
The owner chose to demolish the home and the city expedited issuing a demolition permit, Newport Beach spokesman John Pope said.
On Thursday, construction crews stormed the home, tearing down the roof and walls of the structure, leaving little more than rubble.
With the house demolished, officials say, it should be easier to shore up houses on either side.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
With the house already gone, efforts to shore up the hillside for houses on either side could be easier, Pope said.
Those houses were also damaged in the slide and were marked with a yellow tag, meaning they were safe to enter but could not yet be occupied.
Crews continue to pump groundwater out of the hillside in an effort to desaturate the ground after multiple storms.
The Newport Beach home received a red tag following a mudslide on March 3.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
On Tuesday, the Orange County Board of Supervisors proclaimed a local state of emergency in part due to the collapse of the hillside.
“I am deeply concerned about the hillside collapse in the Dover Shores neighborhood of Newport Beach and other storms in my district and Orange County,” Supervisor Katrina Foley, whose district includes the community of Orange County, said in a statement. Dover Shores. “My hope is that there won’t be any more landslides on the shoreline, but if these three houses fall, a cascading effect can occur to the other 50 houses on the cliff, and we need to be prepared in case that happens.”
The Orange County Board of Supervisors declared a local state of emergency in part due to a hillside slide that severely damaged the home.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
The slopes of Newport Beach weren’t the only places to experience damaging mudslides in the wake of the series of storms; On Wednesday, four homes in San Clemente were red tagged after a landslide.
No injuries were reported in that incident.
