Many residents living 30 miles south of downtown Los Angeles in an area of the Palos Verdes Peninsula known as the Portuguese Bend Reserve are defying evacuation orders even as landslides and earth movements are ripping their homes apart.
Some of these residents have given statements, asserting their love for the area and resilience to the conditions by declaring that “we’re not leaving.”
State of Emergency
Last week, California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of Emergency in the City of Rancho Palos Verdes over safety concerns regarding “ongoing land movement.”
“The city is located on four out of five sub-slides that comprise the Greater Portuguese Landslide Complex. Land movement at part of the Complex has significantly accelerated following severe storms in 2023 and 2024,” said a governor’s office statement.
Unsure What to Do
City officials have been amazed at the landslide conditions, feeling like the scale and speed of the problem has left them with few options. “You can almost see the ground move,” said city council member David Bradley.
“This is unprecedented,” Rancho Palos Verdes City Council member Barbara Ferraro said last week. “No one knows really, in a way, what to do.”
Told to Evacuate
The Los Angeles County Sheriff has issued evacuation warnings to residents in Palos Verdes as the earth’s movements are disrupting basic utilities, collapsing homes, ripping up roads, and causing power outages.
The government also intentionally shut off power to some residents, citing a risk of sewer failure that could threaten public health and safety.
We’re Not Leaving
However, despite all these hardships, many residents have remained defiant even as the situation worsens.
“I can’t leave my husband now. He’s in a new environment and it’s very disorienting to him,” said 82-year-old Sallie Reeves whose house was ripped apart by the land movement. “We love it here. We’re not leaving. We’re resilient…Over the years, you just learn to be.”
Many Staying
Reeves told CNN that she only knew of three families in the area who were leaving, but the rest gave a resounding “No. We’re not leaving.”
These residents have been angry at government orders to evacuate and at actions that have cut power to the community. After receiving the notice about electricity shutoffs a group of handyman last weekend banded together to put in a septic system and install solar panels and electric generators to get power back.
Landslide History
The danger of earth movements in the area has been long known for Palos Verdes. Residents report that the crisis first started in 1956 when 150 homes experienced destruction.
“The slide in 1956 stopped development here for a long time and the houses were undervalued, so people moved here because they loved the beauty in the ocean, and they weren’t looking to make a fortune or anything like that,” said Sheri Hastings, who moved to the neighborhood with her husband in 1979.
Recent Crisis
The recent landslide crisis started in winter last year when the area experienced an unusually wet season.
An influx of storms in the following months made the situation worse, expanding cracks and starting a slow-moving progressive landslide in the area.
Affluent Conditions
Several area homes are valued in the multi-million dollar range, though some residents resent accusations of being affluent, preferring to call themselves a community of self-sufficient craftsmen and artists.
A wealthy gated community located on the northern Palos Verdes Peninsula known as the Rolling Hills Estates suffered major damage in a July 2023 landslide that destroyed 12 homes and took residents by surprise.
Leave Us Alone
Residents have repeatedly insisted to city leaders to leave them alone, and that don’t need their help.
“We can take care of this ourselves,” said Hastings. “We don’t want the city involved in our affairs. We want them out of here, leave us alone, let us fix this ourselves, because they’re completely ineffective. Any money that should be going to the city should be going to us, because we can take care of it.”
City Partnership
Currently, city officials are partnering with residents to aid them, though Hastings asserts residents have had to keep things certain things running like generators with “zero help.”
“We are working as partners with residents to solve problems as they arise, and in the case of generators to sustain the sewer system, the City provided the professional electricians to modify our sewer system pumps to support the use of resident-provided generators,” Jennifer Vaughn, a spokesperson for Rancho Palos Verdes, told CNN. “Meanwhile, we continue to explore long-term mobile power solutions that will sustain the sewer system operations.”
Trying to Rebuild
Despite the continual threat of landslide conditions worsening, residents are remaining defiant, insisting that by staying they can rebuild their homes.
Tom Redfield who fixed up a home in “miserable shape” over 30 years ago says that he has no plans on leaving it now that he’s essentially built it from the ground up.
