People whose homes are on top of an ancient landslide site on the Palos Verdes Peninsula are finding ways to live without utilities after their electricity, gas, and cable were turned off over the past several weeks. This week, 50 more homes in nearby Rolling Hills also lost electricity.
Southern California Edison says that since the rains of this past winter and spring sped up the slide, causing land to shift as much as four feet per month, they can no longer safely provide power.
That’s left hundreds of residents of comfortable ranch homes wrapped by sea breezes – including some whose homes are unaffected by the moving earth – suddenly living off the grid.
It’s changed daily life in ways both radical and mundane.
“My wife and I usually walk very early every morning, and then when we get back, we turn on the generator. And then we’re able to heat up water and take showers – when the water’s running,” says long-time resident Gordon Leon, who now has a large fissure running across his driveway.
Water goes out intermittently here, as the slide busts underground pipes. So Leon installed a water tank on the hill above his house so they’ll still have a consistent drizzle of water.
While the area is home to many retirees, most people here still have to go to work, and life goes on amid a symphony of generators. Sections of paved roads have crumbled into giant cracks, now filled in with dirt. Crews have dismantled the area’s most famous landmark, the Wayfarers Chapel, to try to save it.
Some houses are completely untouched by the land movement. Others are not so lucky.
On a recent tour of Rancho Palos Verdes, Leon points out a house being put on a foundation of steel beams that can be jacked up or down, depending on land movement. The idea, though expensive, is that the house rides out the slide like a boat.
Putting homes on steel beams that can be adjusted as the land slides beneath can be an expensive project, but can save a home from breaking apart. Photo by Susan Valot.
Next door, a fissure runs through the middle of a house, pulling it apart. Leon says it’s unclear whether the owners will be able to save it.
Leon’s own house is undamaged so far. He and his wife plan to temporarily move into a tiny house while they put their regular home on steel beams and move it further away from the fissure in the long, dirt driveway.
In the meantime, he spends his time fixing water leaks and helping keep dewatering wells running, which were installed by the city of Rancho Palos Verdes to try to slow the slide.
The well pumps are powered by electricity. So when the power went out, residents came together to get pumps to keep the dewatering wells going.
They almost came to a halt when Southern California Edison cut off the power over Labor Day weekend, something that frustrates this community.
“They gave just over a day’s notice that they were shutting down,” Leon says, “and they have offered absolutely zero assistance.”
Further up the road, Eric Ehlenberger’s house is also undamaged, and he says the land in this corner of the neighborhood is moving at the same creeping speed as it was when his dad bought the house in the late 1970s.
But that doesn’t mean they’ve escaped being impacted. Ehlenberger, his wife, and their two young children are dealing with life without electricity since the beginning of September. Their gas was shut off at the end of July. Cable is gone, too.
They’ve set up a new outdoor fire pit with a grill to cook dinner. At night, the solar lanterns come out, providing just enough light to walk around without tripping. A spiderweb of power cords run from their patio generator and large battery to various parts of the house.
Portuguese Bend resident Eric Ehlenberger serves dinner to his kids by solar-powered light in the front yard. Ehlenberger and his wife cooked the meal over a new fire pit after losing electricity and gas indefinitely. Photo by Susan Valot.
Ehlenberger and his wife, Anissa, run a small horror-themed business at a local artisan marketplace and online.
Ehlenberger says it’s been a “crazy adjustment” to living off the grid, especially when the only cell phone signal they can get is in the yard and in one tiny corner of the house. That leaves limited space to work remotely on the online side of the business.
“It sucks for the people that their houses actually have damage. It sucks for the people that have no damage,” Ehlenberger says. “Everyone is equally dealing with a lot of crap."
Ehlenberger is installing satellite internet, but that also takes generator power to run.
The family has been using a propane-heated camping shower in the backyard to bathe. They’ve gotten a large propane tank installed in the yard, but they still need to convert their appliances. SoCal Gas gave them enough money to buy a water heater that can run on propane, but they still don’t have a working washer, dryer, stove, or heater.
Anissa Ehlenberger says they’ve been doing a lot of takeout and some restaurants have donated meals. But she says her 2-year-old and 4-year-old have been eating a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because they are easy and don’t require refrigeration.
“It’s all an experiment right now,” Eric Ehlenberger says. “Every day is a different experiment.”
He says initially they tried to run the generator all day, but found that it was sucking up $80 in gasoline per day. So they started turning off more appliances to use the generator more sparingly, mostly to charge up a large battery that a relative dropped off.
They still have trash service and Amazon deliveries. But it’s the little things they miss, like the automatic cat box scooper that needs electricity to run.
Even though the governor has declared an emergency for the area, Ehlenberger says it doesn’t help individuals. Not everyone in this neighborhood is rich. The Ehlenbergers say many of their neighbors are teachers and artists. And retirees comprise about one-quarter of Rancho Palos Verdes residents.
And like many in the area, Eric Ehlenberger is frustrated that Southern California Edison doesn’t seem to have a plan for returning power. They feel like they’ve been left to fend for themselves.
The Portuguese Bend landslide, which sped up after a heavy rainy season, drops down via a series of fissures, visible here. In the distance is the Pacific Ocean and Catalina Island. Photo by Susan Valot.
So why stay? Residents say it’s a tight community with a rural feel and wonderful Pacific Ocean views, along with good schools. They’ve been put in a tough spot.
“I don’t know what they expect us to do. We have mortgages. We can’t just leave and start in another place,” Ehlenberger says. “Can we rent or sell this house at this point? Not really. Not at the current state with the slide still moving like it is. And even if we’re not moving here, there’s still the perception, and there’s still no utilities.”
Ehlenberger’s longer-term plan is to install solar, but that’s going to take a while. He says he’s lucky that he and his wife have carried each other through down days.
“The interesting thing about this is the community here has gotten a lot closer, I feel, through this little time. So that’s been the positive out of this, because before, you’d wave to the neighbors and say hi, but now everyone’s really kind of coming together,” Ehlenberger says. “I’m meeting neighbors I’ve never met before.”
For now, they’re adjusting to the new normal – a life with generators. In the meantime, the Rotary Club of Palos Verdes Peninsula has set up a fundraising drive to help those in the landslide area who need it.