Shock in Rancho Palos Verdes as power is shut off and evacuation warnings issued

SoCalEdison is shutting off power service for residents in the Portuguese Bend area of Rancho Palos Verdes in response to worsening land movement in the affected area. The indefinite outage will begin at around noon Sunday, and an evacuation warning is in effect.

The news came as a shock to many: Residents have been bracing for the worst since the land started to shift more quickly months ago, but many still felt blindsided with less than 24 hours' notice.

City and county officials responded before the shutoff, including a pledge of $5 million from L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn. They also warned residents that the evacuation warning could quickly turn into an order.

The power shut off impacts about 140 homes, according to SoCalEdison, though backup generators were found for the sewer system that will allow it to continue operating during the shutoff. Facing down a lack of access to utilities, residents in the power shut-off zones — many of whom are elderly and disabled — are now scrambling to find other accommodations during a holiday weekend.

The current land slippage in Portuguese Bend has been ongoing since 1956 , but has worsened in recent years after two winters' worth of heavy rain accelerated land movement in the area. The land is currently moving at a rate of about one foot per week.

'Disappointed and angry'

Shari Twidwell, who lives on Sweetbay Road in Portuguese Bend, said she was “disappointed and angry” at the news of the shutoff.

“And of course, it's Labor Day weekend, and so no one is around and that felt pretty cowardly and pretty disgusting,” she said.

Twidwell lives with her parents. Her 88-year-old father, she said, has advanced Parkinson’s disease, macular degeneration and is blind. Her mother, a nurse, cares for her father full time while Twidwell is his backup caretaker. She has a tentative plan to move her parents to a hotel, but she'll have to take time off work to do so.

“We have a dog, the hotel doesn't take dogs so we're going to have to figure out what to do with me and the dog,” she said. “All of my patients are going to have to suffer and not have a therapist this week because I'm going to have to take that time off to help my family.”

Twidwell said she called the L.A. County emergency line for help and the only resource she was offered was transitional housing for her parents in Long Beach.

“There's no way that my parents would be able to handle that anyway,” she said.

Some residents feel overwhelmed

Twidwell and her parents have lived in Rancho Palos Verdes for 51 years. She moved to the city when she was 6 months old. At that time, the ground was moving just a millimeter a year.

“That was manageable and for the most part, the slide was dormant,” she said. “We expected it to remain dormant. All of the experts said that it would remain dormant. This was not in the cards.”

Her mother, Leanne Twidwell, said the community is tight-knit, with “a lot of people here that are older, that are handicapped.”

“They can't just pack up and live in the car, or whatever. People who can't walk, people who can't drive — I really don't know what they're going to do,” Leanne Twidwell said. “Also, there are horses up here, and it's also a dog community. People have multiple dogs. I'm just absolutely overwhelmed.”

Backup generators found for sewer service

City officials confirmed just before the shutoff that the sewer system will not shut off at 12 p.m. alongside the power shutoff, as backup generators were found to keep the system running.

That was paramount for Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor John Cruikshank, who said a power and sewer shut off together would be dangerous for residents.

“You just can't live in a house where you can't flush your toilets or take a shower where the water is literally going nowhere, like there, there won't be a sewer system,” he said. “So you're going to have a huge health risk.”

Cruikshank said city officials have reached out to the UCLA South Bay campus as well as Terranea Resort to allocate rooms for evacuees, but the options are limited due to Labor Day weekend. He also said the city does not have resources to make individual calls and book reservations for each resident.

“Our hope is that people are able to move to a safe location and be able to have all that paid and taken care of through their insurance,” he said.

The power shut off will also turn off the city’s dewatering wells, which are a crucial way to mitigate land movement in the area.

“If we are not drawing water out of there, then the landslide movement will actually accelerate, as we've seen in the past," Cruikshank said.

Support for affected families

Rancho Palos Verdes will open an emergency assistance center for impacted residents on Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 6 pm. at the Ladera Linda Community Center. Local officials are scheduled to hold a news conference at the same location at 11 a.m.

Location : 32201 Forrestal Dr, Rancho Palos Verdes
Phone : (310) 544-5260
For latest SCE' information : sce.com/rpv
Housing : Those who need temporary housing should email landmovement@rpvca.gov
Charging station: SCE also will provide a vehicle to serve people who need to charge devices or get information. That customer care vehicle will be parked on Narcissa Drive at the Pepper Wood gate, starting Sunday through Tuesday. The hours of operation are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Note: SoCalGas came under fire after the gas shutoff this summer for not giving enough notice to families, including from L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn. The company eventually provided $2,500 to each impacted account holder.

Follow our coverage

• SCE to turn off power to 140 homes in Rancho Palos Verdes on Sunday, triggering evacuation warning
• Rancho Palos Verdes land movement leads to 10,000-gallon sewage spill
• Rancho Palos Verdes says it's dealing with a much larger and faster moving landslide
• SoCalGas shuts off service to 135 Rancho Palos Verdes homes indefinitely