Rude awakening

Barbara Diamond

Laguna’s hard-won expertise in coping with disaster paid off again

Wednesday.

Minutes after a flurry of 911 calls starting at 6:50 a.m. to

report a massive landslide in Bluebird Canyon, city emergency teams

were on the scene. By 8:30 a.m., the evacuation of an estimated 750

to 1,000 residents from 350 homes began.

Many residents had been awakened around 6 a.m. by the sounds of

cracking and popping, as pipes, wood structures and trees buckled as

the earth gave way.

Scores fled downhill as the land moved beneath them. Despite the

imminent danger, there were no serious injuries and no deaths,

officials said.

The City Council declared a local disaster at noon Wednesday, the

first step to seeking state and federal assistance.

As of Thursday afternoon, authorities announced that the slide had

stabilized and that most residents could begin to return to their

homes.

Twenty-two homes were red-tagged -- meaning they were considered

too dangerous to enter. Of these, 15 are likely to be a total loss.

Seven of the red-tagged homes are not seriously damaged and limited

recovery of personal items was being allowed.

Fourteen homes were yellow-tagged, meaning they showed no

structural damage, but were on the perimeter of the “hot zone” of

red-tagged homes.

Residents of 310 afflicted properties got the good news at a 2

p.m. meeting that they could begin to return to their homes by 4

p.m., and would be escorted by authorities in groups to their

respective areas. Another 40 to 50 homes were considered too

dangerous to occupy, but 25 of the yellow-tagged homes were open for

escorted visits to retrieve belongings.

Electricity had been restored to most of the habitable homes, but

officials were warning residents to boil their water.

A geological assessment of the slide area showed that the area was

reshaped by a deep landslide that went down to 100 feet below the

surface -- the likely result of weeks of saturating winter rains.

“We have been here before -- we will get it together and make

things happen,” Police Capt. Danell Adams said Wednesday. She was

alluding to the 1978 Bluebird Canyon landslide that claimed nearly

two dozen homes and damaged many more.

“I have flown and walked the perimeter and a portion of the

interior,” geologist Hannes Richter said at a 5 p.m. disaster update

at City Hall the day of the slide. “This is a 60- to 100-foot-deep

bedrock landslide. It appears to have buttressed itself in the

canyon.”

Richter said the slide moved at least 100 feet laterally. The mass

that sheered off and slumped into the canyon had not yet been

measured .

“We have a new mountain here,” Bluebird Canyon resident Roxanna

Ward said.

Geologists continue to monitor the slide, Richter said. News and

data-gathering helicopters circled the site throughout Wednesday

until well after dark and were up again at first light Thursday.

“We had some record rainfalls this winter and that is most likely

the cause of the slide,” Richter said.

Supervisor Tom Wilson, who earlier surveyed the damage from a

helicopter, personally flew the emergency proclamation to Sacramento.

“We have heard from Congressman Chris Cox and Senator Dianne

Feinstein who said they were moving the process forward,” Mayor

Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider said later in the day.

City officials had hoped to start moving residents in that area

back home Wednesday night or at least to escort small groups in to

pick up medicine, a few personal belongings and pets, but decided to

wait until after further assessment.

The city’s animal services officers have been on the site since

early in the day to help with frightened or wandering animals. Local

veterinarians and the animal shelter will provide housing for

homeless or wandering pets.

Many of the residents left their homes with just the clothes on

their backs, either of their own volition or at the insistence of

safety personnel. The question most often asked by them was: when can

we go back?

Capt. Adams said the city’s mission is to get as many residents as

possible back in their homes, but only when it is safe, and then to

give all possible support to the residents who will never again live

in the homes that were affected.

“We have to complete the safety assessment and the geotech survey

to see if the area is still at risk,” Adams said. “Then we can

determine access.”

Fire Chief Mike Macy, who took over the job May 1, divided the

canyon into three zones: hot for uninhabitable homes and most

unstable areas; warm for areas of limited access, and cold for the

majority of the canyon that was not affected by the slide.

“How are you going to get ahold of me,” asked Vera Martinez, whose

home was red-tagged as uninhabitable. Frank said residents who would

not be permitted to occupy their homes in the near or foreseeable

future should notify the city of a telephone number where they could

be reached.

Identification badges were to be issued to the residents who will

be allowed access.

Police and fire department patrols were on duty Wednesday night to

prevent folks, either the curious or the anguished, from going into

the canyon.

Checkpoints were established early, staffed by mutual aid agencies

that rushed to help maintain a perimeter set up by the police

department.

Once inside the perimeter, Frank, Pearson-Schneider and Kinsman

stopped every few feet to offer condolences to residents or answer

questions by the omnipresent media. The disaster was carried on every

major TV channel and on radio and covered by local and regional

publications.

Mary and Clark Fegraus’s daughter learned that her parents had

been evacuated on Australian television. Locally Cox Cable, which

serves the city, offered to carry any public notices the city wanted

to issue.

City water and sewer crews planned to work throughout Wednesday

night to restore services. Restoration of gas and electricity

service, which were cut by the utility companies as a safety measure,

was expected Thursday morning.

Water service is vital, Frank said. The reservoir under the tennis

courts just slightly north of the damaged homes on Bluebird Canyon

Drive was not in danger, but he said the slide had appeared to dam

the natural flow of water through the canyon. Frank said pumping

would begin Wednesday night.

The drive, which provides the main access to the canyon, appears

not to have been compromised.

Community volunteers worked shoulder-to-shoulder with city

officials and emergency personnel to provide immediate and practical

emotional and physical support to the affected neighborhood.

The Red Cross had established food and clothing distribution

centers at Bluebird Park and Laguna Beach High School by 10 a.m.

South Coast Bank donated $5,000 to start a relief fund. Contributions

to Laguna Relief Fund may be mailed or dropped off at the bank.

Mail is being held at the Aliso Viejo Post Office.

The Laguna Beach Relief and Resource Coalition, which formed after

the 1993 firestorm to assist victims, had already planned a

fundraiser for Saturday night at the Laguna Beach Woman’s Club.

Proceeds will be earmarked for displaced residents of Bluebird

Canyon.

Private homes were opened and hotels offered a free night, reduced

rates or both, coordinated by the Chamber of Commerce and the Laguna

Beach Visitors & Conference Bureau.

Hobie’s donated $70,000 worth of kid’s clothes, adding to the

donations brought to the Laguna Presbyterian Church almost as soon as

the disaster became public knowledge. Bushard’s Pharmacy provided

toiletries.

A weary Mayor Pearson-Schnieder, who had arrived home late Tuesday

night from Mexico, was on call all day. Frank, who came home Tuesday

afternoon from Fiji also was on the job. Kinsman had a day longer to

gear up after a week in Yosemite. Councilwoman Toni Iseman rushed

back to the city Wednesday morning from Palm Springs, where she

learned of the disaster. Councilman Steven Dicterow was still out of

town on business.

The Red Cross closed its overnight shelter at Laguna Beach High

School on Thursday, after they had no takers for the service. A

service center was set up at the Boys & Girls Club at 1085 Laguna

Canyon Road, where slide victims can obtain cash assistance, food,

clothing and other services.