A cliff in the Isla Vista community of Santa Barbara, where several people have fallen to their deaths over the years, collapsed during recent storms, and students in an apartment building on the cliff were evacuated while inspectors checked a balcony that was crumbling.
The terrace in the 6700 block of Del Playa Drive is cracked and hanging from the edge of the cliff, which has been eaten away by coastal erosion in recent decades. The 45 UC Santa Barbara students living in the building were evacuated Tuesday morning but were allowed to return after an inspector examined the property. Nobody was hurt.
“The cliffs in Isla Vista have been a problem for a long time,” said Laura Capps, a Santa Barbara County supervisor who visited the area Tuesday and spoke with students. “This morning it fell. Fortunately, there were no injuries. “They were able to get all the children out of the apartment.”
The slide occurred around 9:50 a.m. due to “cliff erosion,” according to Santa Barbara County fire spokesman Scott Safechuck. It comes as record-breaking storms that have battered California continue to deluge many parts of Southern California with rain.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department Lt. Garrett Te Slaa was the first on the scene Tuesday.
He said the department was concerned about potential problems on the bluffs during this week's rain and said coastal erosion is an ongoing problem in Isla Vista.
“It's obvious that the bluff continues to erode,” he said. “This is the perfect combination of a saturated streetlight and overcapacity balconies.”
Te Slaa said equipment was brought in on Tuesday as students were evacuated to install a new fence along the balcony, closer to the property. He said as coastal erosion continues, balconies will get smaller.
Capps took a photo from the cliff showing the red fence surrounding the balcony hanging over the beach, threatening to fall into the sand.
The cliffs have made headlines over the years when students and others have fallen to their deaths on the beach.
Since 1994, 13 people have died in cliff accidents, according to the Santa Barbara Independent.
More recently, a student, Benjamin Schurmer, died after falling about 40 feet from the cliffs.
Capps proposed an eight-step plan to combat the deaths, including increasing the height of fences surrounding the roughly 60 cliffside properties.
