LOS ANGELES – Repairs crews are working feverishly to fix a road that is collapsing due to weather damage on the Palos Verdes Peninsula as another storm bears down on Southern California.
Several homes along Dauntless Drive have already been red-tagged as uninhabitable since back-to-back storms drenched the region in early February, causing mudslides and erosion. Rancho Palos Verdes city leaders declared a local state of emergency and residents have been pleading for state assistance.
“We keep on asking for things, and we kept on being told its coming, its coming, its coming, while everything around us is falling apart,” Nikki Noushkam told KTLA 5 reporter Rachel Menitoff on Thursday.
The city is dedicating resources and funding to repair the storm damage. However, Mayor John Cruikshank says there are limits to what can be done quickly without outside help.
“Our city staff is not only figuring out the costs due to the storms but also looking at what the best first projects are to move forward,” Cruikshank told KTLA earlier in the week. “But even if we had all of our own money, we couldn’t move forward … because of the environmental impact report required.”
The weather damage not only impacted homes and roads but also infrastructure such as sewage and gas lines.
Another casualty: the beloved and historic Wayfarers Chapel, also known as “The Glass Church,” which closed indefinitely due to shifting ground.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency previously authorized millions to remediate the ongoing slides by using underground wells that will divert water from the ground to the ocean. But that project isn’t supposed to begin until next year.
The latest storm is expected to bring 0.25 to 2 inches of rain to Southern California through Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.