Mudslide Crushes Empty Studio City House

A waterlogged Studio City hillside that collapsed over the weekend crushed the house below. All that remained Sunday was an 8-foot pile of twisted metal and shattered wood.

The house, in the 3900 block of Eureka Drive, was empty. It had been deemed too dangerous to inhabit last week as the hillside above became saturated by unrelenting rain.

The family “moved out. Thank God,” said David Keim, public information officer for the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety. “They would be dead right now.”

The house’s contents were destroyed, Keim said. Left littering the lot Sunday was a mishmash of debris. Three cars sandwiched between the broken roof and the foundation looked like aluminum cans smashed for recycling.

Neighbors reported hearing rumbling vibrations as the hillside gave away late Saturday evening.

“I knew exactly what it was,” said neighbor Eddie Walker, 29. “It sounded like an earthquake.”

Keim warned more damage may be in the offing. The hills are saturated and residents should beware of similar incidents, Keim said, adding, “We expect these failures for days to come.”

The houses on both sides of the destroyed home were yellow-tagged, meaning some portions of each house can be used.

Meanwhile, the house on the hillside above--in the 11200 block of Laurie Drive--lost a small portion of its back yard during the slide and was red-tagged, meaning it is not safe to stay there.

Three adjacent houses were marked with yellow tags.

“We’re moving out,” said Walker, who lives at one of the yellow-tagged houses on Laurie Drive. He, his 16-year-old brother and their father intend to move temporarily to a hotel.

“It’s too dangerous with what’s next to us,” Walker said.

The slide actually began Tuesday, when residents noticed the soil eroding and called safety officials, Keim said. Inspectors arrived and red-tagged the house on Eureka Drive--which stood about 100 yards down the steep hill.

The hillside collapsed about 9:30 p.m. Saturday, pushing the smashed house into its swimming pool. More soil slid down the hill Sunday morning.

“Eventually they’ll lose Laurie Drive,” predicted Chris Stendahl, 45, whose parents still live in a nearby house where he was raised and remembers other slides. “It’s not a big surprise.”

In front of the red-tagged house on Laurie Drive sits an empty lot partially covered with plastic . A house that used to be there was lost during slides a few years ago, neighbors said.

About 15 years ago, Stendahl said, about half a dozen houses nearby also were destroyed by mudslides.

Some neighbors had taken precautions in the last few years. Walker’s family, for instance, reinforced the dirt hill with concrete barriers. Another neighbor did the same. The Walkers also planted plants to try to prevent erosion.

But, Walker said, neighbors have long known that the canyon between Laurie Drive and the house crushed over the weekend is a natural waterway during storms.

“You can see that’s where the water flowed when it was just a mountain,” Walker said.

The houses in that area have been built gradually over the last 70 years with different building codes, said Luke Zamperini, a building and safety inspector.

“Every once in a while nature gives us a lesson,” he said.

Though the past few days have been sunny, Zamperini said residents in hillside neighborhoods should still take precautions as water continues to fill underground springs. Residents are advised to inspect their properties while checking for sliding dirt, keeping clear the drainage systems and making sure water reaches the paved streets.

“All the hillsides in the city of Los Angeles are pretty much soaked,” Zamperini said. “Water is oozing out of the ground.”