SHERMAN OAKS, Calif. – At least four homes were damaged early Wednesday morning after a landslide in Sherman Oaks, California.
Thankfully, no one was injured in the incident, said the Los Angeles Fire Department.
According to sources from FOX 11 in Los Angeles, recent heavy rains and storm damage in the region are believed to be responsible for the landslide. The sources also mentioned that the saturated land can take up to a month to give way.
Downtown Los Angeles had just over 12 inches of rain in February, the FOX Forecast Center said. It was the city’s fourth-wettest February on record.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA THREATENED BY DANGEROUS WINDS RIVALING CATEGORY 2 HURRICANE AS SANTA ANAS RETURN
Firefighters received a report of a large tree and wires down in the backyard of a home shortly before 3 a.m. in the 3700 block of North Ventura Canyon Avenue.
Crews arrived to find a large portion of a hillside that slid toward at least three homes and heavily damaged one under construction, firefighters said. Several people were evacuated from at least one of the homes.
The Department of Building and Safety assessed the structures and hillsides and red-tagged at least one building. At daybreak, firefighters will fly drones with cameras and infrared technology to provide additional situational awareness to investigators still on the scene.
“We want to use this as a good reminder that having an emergency plan is necessary year-round,” the fire department said in a statement. “These events are not isolated to ‘fire season’ or Santa Ana wind events or ‘atmospheric river’ rain events.”