Landslide damages multiple homes in posh LA neighborhood, 1 home collapses: See photos
A house under renovation in Los Angeles was reduced to rubble following a landslide that also damaged two other homes in the area, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
The slide occurred just before 3 a.m. Wednesday in Sherman Oaks, a posh neighborhood about 12 miles northwest of downtown, said the LAFD, adding that no injuries were reported.
"Crews arrived to find a large portion of a hillside that slid down toward at least three homes, and heavily damaging one home under construction," said the LAFD in a news release. "Several people have been evacuated from at least one of the homes."
Video footage and pictures from the incident shows the house under construction completely destroyed while the pool and deck area of a house next door were pulled away by the slide.
Landslide photos:California mansion sits on edge of a cliff after after Dana Point landslide
Homes red-tagged
The LAFD did not specify what caused the landslide but said that firefighters used pumps to "remove water from a swimming pool in the area to take some additional weight and stress off of the hillside," indicating that the landslide may have been caused due to the heavy winter storms that struck the area last month, saturating the ground.
The fire department said that the “Department of Building and Safety is responding to assess the structures and hillsides,” later updating that two homes were red-tagged while one was yellow-tagged.
Homes in California can be red-tagged by the city or other government entities if they are deemed unsafe to occupy.
Record rainfall in Los Angeles
Los Angeles received an unprecedented amount of rainfall earlier this year in a 1-in-1,000-year rain event, causing multiple landslides and mudslide and putting the city under a flash flood warning. Several multimillion dollar houses in the Hollywood Hills were damaged as mud, rocks and debris oozed and rolled through the area on Feb. 5.
Record rain in California also gave birth to a temporary lake in Death Valley National Park's Badwater Basin, which lies 282 feet below sea level. A deluge of storms since August led to the lake's formation at the park at one of the hottest, driest and lowest-elevation places in North America, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
'1-in-1,000 year rain' event:State of emergency due to floods, mudslides in California
Contributing: John Bacon, Thao Nguyen, Doyle Rice, Kayla Jimenez, Eric Lagatta USA TODAY