6 apartment units on crumbling cliff in California evacuated after chunk of bluff falls
By APThursday, January 21, 2010
Apartments on crumbling cliff evacuated in Calif.
PACIFICA, Calif. — Officials say six units of an apartment complex on an eroding cliff in Northern California have been evacuated after at least 30 feet of a bluff abutting the building’s patios broke off.
Doug Rider, Pacifica’s chief building official, says the residents were leaving Thursday and would have at least the rest of the day to return for possessions.
One of the units evacuated was vacant. Officials determined 14 units are not in danger at the site about 10 miles south of San Francisco.
The building sits next to another apartment complex that was evacuated before Christmas, also due to erosion caused by ocean waves.
Crews began work in December to shore up the bluff below that building by placing boulders at its base. It remains off-limits.
