Rancho Palos Verdes landslide: How much worse could it get?

With less than 24 hours’ notice, Nikki Noushkam learned Sunday that Southern California Edison would be shutting off power to her home indefinitely.

“I have to evacuate my home that I have lived in for almost 20 years,” Noushkam said during a special Rancho Palos Verdes City Council meeting Tuesday to discuss the latest blow to residents of the besieged community: losing power due to unprecedented mudslides that officials fear could spark wildfires.

Noushkam is one of more than 200 homeowners in the Portuguese Bend and Seaview neighborhoods whose power was shut off by Edison over Labor Day weekend. She and her neighbors are now struggling to continue performing daily tasks — cooking, showering, doing laundry — with no certainty of when utilities will be permanently restored.

Noushkam feels frustrated and helpless as she struggles to save her home.

“(You made me homeless), help me,” he said.

The Palos Verdes Peninsula has been plagued by coastal landslides since the early days of home construction. But rapidly worsening conditions have raised existential questions for the city about how to help residents and how bad the landslide will be. The city’s historic Wayfarers Chapel has been hit and had to be dismantled to save it this year.

Residents in the area without power feel isolated, and those living nearby are wondering if their homes will be next to lose utility services because of the landslide.

Right now, the soil is moving at an average of 9 to 12 inches per week.

The shutoffs are designed to reduce the risk that continued, accelerated earth movements could spark a wildfire if power lines remain energized, Edison officials said.

The potential dangers were underscored by a small fire that started near Narcissa Drive in Portuguese Bend last week when a power line fell and ignited vegetation.

During the special board meeting, Edison officials said repairs and maintenance of lines in these areas have increased over the past year, but their efforts have been “thwarted within days of making those repairs.”

The constant earth movement has made it impossible for crews to keep pace with the damage, said George Mundorf, Edison’s vice president of distribution operations. The earth movement compounded by the area’s rugged terrain is also complicating crews’ ability to survey areas quickly enough to find problems before they occur, he said.

“It is becoming increasingly difficult to access infrastructure with cranes or trucks due to road and terrain conditions,” Mundorf said.

This means that a quick solution to the crisis is unlikely.

Concerns for the safety of its workers and customers led Edison to indefinitely shut off power to the Portuguese Bend neighborhood about a month after a gas outage. At the same time, the city issued an evacuation warning for the neighborhood.

Farther up the hillside, just north of Portuguese Bend, power was cut to 34 properties for one to three weeks in the Seaview neighborhood, and 30 homes were left without power indefinitely. Edison officials predicted another 41 homes that had lost power earlier would regain power this week.

Officials are also considering shutting off power to the Portuguese Bend Beach Club. Edison officials said they cannot say for certain whether power will be shut off, and that the decision will be based largely on whether ground-moving conditions change. Officials cautioned that the community should be prepared for a possible power cut at the club.

“While Edison engineers are exploring solutions that may restore power, the relentless, accelerated movement that has continued for many months has no playbook,” Mundorf said. “That’s why we can’t provide a time frame for power restoration in some cases.”

Living in such uncertain conditions, Seaview residents have to turn to neighbors who have power for help.

“When we talk about our neighbors, we’re talking about people sharing refrigerators and helping each other move aquariums, cooking for each other, and sharing laundry rooms for those of us who have electricity for our neighbors across the street who don’t,” Seaview resident Anne Cruz said during the council meeting.

City officials and residents wanted interim solutions from the utility, such as neighborhood-scale generators or microgrids, but Edison said they would not be safe to operate because either method requires stable ground.

Earlier Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for Rancho Palos Verdes after the risk of severe landslides disrupted utilities and prompted an evacuation warning.

The proclamation opens up state resources, including emergency personnel, equipment, services and financial assistance to the city as it responds to residences whose power has been cut off, city officials say.

What the governor’s declaration does not do is provide financial assistance to affected residents. Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor John Cruikshank said he is sending a letter to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to request that the emergency proclamation be extended so that financial assistance can be provided to residents.

Meanwhile, the city approved a retroactive permit application from Edison to install a temporary power pole at Ladera Linda Community Park to provide electricity to Seaview.

It also extended a building moratorium within the landslide area until October 2025 and adopted an emergency ordinance to help residents in the landslide complex stabilize their homes and place temporary housing on the same site as their residence.

Following the governor’s statement, California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a consumer alert on Wednesday warning residents about the risk of price gouging on housing, gasoline, food and other essential supplies.

If consumers see that the cost of an item is more than 10% higher than the price charged before the emergency declaration, Bonta said, they are encouraged to file a complaint online.