Fear of new rain

Landslide: million-dollar mansions right on the edge of the abyss

In Southern California, a landslide has brought a near-vertical cliff right up to several million-dollar mansions. Three expensive properties in the town of Dana Point on the Pacific coast are now on the edge of the abyss.

As a result of heavy rainfall, tons of rock and soil crashed into the sea. Surprisingly, the villas are still said to be habitable.

"No structural problem at the moment"
Lewis Bruggeman, who owns one of the affected villas in the community south of Los Angeles, told local station KCAL-TV that his house was "not under threat". The city council had found that there was "no structural problem" with the building at the moment.

Mayor Jamey Federico assured that the pictures looked "much scarier" than the situation actually was. Engineers had inspected Bruggeman's mansion and had come to the conclusion "that there is no immediate threat to the structure", Federico was quoted as saying by the Los Angeles Times.

Next rain to come
Pictures published by the newspaper show that a large piece of green space at Bruggeman's 16 million dollar (15 million euro) villa has completely disappeared. According to meteorologists, the area is in for more heavy rainfall in the coming days.