To the editor: I am saddened to read about the landslide in Rancho Palos Verdes, but apparently the people who live there want the government to fight Mother Nature. (“Palos Verdes landslide continues to worsen. Residents’ anger boils over,” Sept. 22)
On January 10, 2005, a landslide struck the Ventura County coastal community of La Conchita, destroying or severely damaging 36 homes and killing 10 people. This was not the first destructive landslide to damage this community, nor is it likely to be the last, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Landslides on cliffs and hills near beaches are common. Amtrak has had to halt service on Sam Clemente because of landslides near its tracks in that area.
Anger will not solve this problem. If there was a solution to the collapse of Rancho Palos Verdes, the government would have already taken that action.
Don Evans, Canoga Park
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To the editor: I grew up in Long Beach. I remember articles from the Long Beach Press-Telegram newspaper in the 1950s mentioning the landslide in the Portuguese Bend area of Rancho Palos Verdes, part of an area known for prehistoric landslides.
The landslide that occurred there was reactivated in 1969 and there has been continuous land movement ever since. One of the most spectacular recent landslides occurred at the former Ocean Trails Golf Club in 1999, leading to its bankruptcy.
In the 1950s and 1960s, it seems that land and houses would slide and eventually be bulldozed, and after a certain period of time new homes would be built in the same areas of Portuguese Bend. I wondered then, as I do now, why building permits would be granted in such a notoriously unstable area.
Mother Nature always has the last word.
Richard Wulfsberg, City Studio
