Touring the Bluebird’hot zone’

Cindy Frazier

State Sen. John Campbell came to Laguna Beach on Friday, offering to

do everything he could -- possibly including special legislation --

to assist those who have lost property in the devastating June 1

landslide in Bluebird Canyon.

Campbell plans to ask Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to include the

Bluebird Canyon incident in the existing declaration of emergency

that was issued during the destructive winter rains in the state.

That will pave the way for state and federal aid for slide victims

and a restoration effort.

“This is another part of that damage, it just took longer for it

to occur,” Campbell said.

Such a declaration -- expected to be announced this week -- would

give homeowners the possibility of applying for cash grants and other

aid. But government assistance probably won’t do a lot to restore

what has been lost, he acknowledged.

Campbell called the Bluebird Canyon destruction “unique.”

“Compared to other natural disasters, this one is different,

because some people have lost not just their homes, but actually lost

their land. Lots have vanished. It’s a unique situation.”

The senator, who toured the landslide “hot zone” with reporters,

city officials and members of the Office of Emergency Services, said

he is convinced that nature, not humans, caused the destruction in a

portion of the canyon neighborhood.

Some in the area have blamed a single, large home -- built but

never occupied -- at 925 Oriole Drive, claiming the huge construction

project undermined the area’s geology.

“That is not the case,” Campbell said after alighting from a

helicopter tour of the canyon. “From the air, it is patently obvious

from the large area of destruction that it did not originate from a

single source. It appears [the slide] was caused by the second

highest amount of rainfall ever recorded in the area.”

The concrete home sits high above the street but is visibly

cracked. City officials, who never certified it for occupancy, say

the landslide has eliminated any possibility the home can be lived in

without substantial repair.

Reporters and camera people, including several TV news crews,

eagerly followed Campbell into the “hot zone” -- out-of-bounds for

anyone but safety personnel -- on foot for a rare close-up look at

the center of the destruction on Flamingo Road.

Here, homes were cantilevered over the road, which at points

buckled like a ribbon and at other spots tore away like shredded

fabric. SUVs hung on to the edge of the asphalt, and homes appeared

topsy-turvy as if the rules of gravity no longer applied.

Utility poles lay on the streets or leaned against manicured

homes, some of which were cracked laterally and others shifted off

their foundations.

One bizarre sight was a sewer main with manhole cover which

protruded from the street more than a foot high.

The tour illustrated the extreme danger that residents were in and

how miraculous it was that no one was seriously injured or killed.

One couple apparently rode the landslide downhill as they ate

breakfast, then managed to escape after they came to rest.

Campbell said he was particularly moved by stepping into a home

and seeing toast and glasses of orange juice still sitting on an

intact breakfast table. But the rest of the house was destroyed, the

floor severely buckled.

“The degree of upheaval is really stunning,” he said.

Campbell defended Bluebird Canyon homeowners against critics who

have said that they don’t deserve government help to compensate them

for the loss of their multimillion-dollar properties.

“They may have been millionaires because of the value of their

homes, but now their houses are gone and they can’t afford to come

back,” he said. “I love this area, I love Laguna, and just because

you have earthquakes, fires and landslides doesn’t mean you shouldn’t

live here.”

Geologist Pam Irvine, who works with the Office of Emergency

Services, said the state will be conducting tests to determine the

exact cause of the slide and help city officials to monitor the area

for possible further movement.

To monitor the area, bore holes will be drilled at various points

in the ground, and inclinometers put in place to measure ground

movement.

Irvine said her preliminary assessment is that deep ground

saturation -- to a level of 60 to 100 feet -- caused the earth to

become so heavy that it buckled under its own weight, taking the

hillside with it.

Irvine said the area could continue to slide for weeks or months,

although it appears to have stopped for the time being.