Dramatic Video Shows California Coastal Community Falling Into the Pacific

PACIFICA, CA- The dream of living on a beautiful cliff side overlooking the Pacific Ocean is quickly turning into a nightmare for the residents of some apartment complexes in Pacifica, California.

The city of 38,000 is located just south of San Francisco, in the county of San Mateo and boasts tremendous views of the ocean. But those views, residents are learning, can come with great risk.

Though erosion has been happening in the area for decades, recent weather has sped up the process. After years of drought here in the Golden State, recent El Nino storms have brought strong waves, winds and rain to the region. Now, once-beautiful and much desired homes are literally falling off the edge of a cliff.

As seen in the drone footage above, the land is dropping off in chunks at a time.

Significant storm damage in the city over the last several weeks led the city manager to declare a local state of emergency on Friday. And on Monday, failing bluffs along the Pacifica shoreline led city officials to declare a third apartment building uninhabitable.

Eroding cliffs along Esplanade Avenue have led the city to “yellow-tag” apartment buildings at 310, 320 and 330 Esplanade Ave., meaning residents can go inside to get belongings out, but can no longer stay there.

“Recent bluff failures have resulted in unsafe conditions for living space at 310 Esplanade Avenue,” city chief building official Mike Cully said in a statement Monday. “Cavities in the bluff are forming to the south, west and north of the building and these critically over-steepened slopes are anticipated to fall back to more stable profiles in the next several days.”

City officials say it’s not just the apartment buildings that are feeling the impact of the drastic erosion.

“El Nino is hitting the City’s coastline very hard and creating almost daily reports of impacts to both public and private property,” City Manager Lorie Tinfow said. “We need state and federal assistance to respond to the growing list of failing public infrastructure including the Beach Boulevard seawall failure.”

Since Dec. 15, storms have damaged the Pacifica Pier, the Milagra Watershed Outfall and the Beach Boulevard sea wall near Santa Maria Avenue.

Areas along the coast are losing bluff top as well. City officials are keeping an eye on erosion along the coast with an eye to protecting roads and utilities.

“We hope all property owners along the city’s coastline are aware of how fluid the weather situation is and take appropriate precautions,” Tinflow said.

Pacifica was also hit hard in the El Nino winter of 1997 to 1998. A number of homes on Esplanade Drive were declared uninhabitable due to heavy erosion and landslides that caused the bluffs under them to crumble into the sea.

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OP ED: The Challenge of Sea Level Rise to Our San Mateo County Communities

– Bay City News Service contributed to this report.