A man in Southern California is getting a lot of attention for his controversial decision.
A storm fueled by the second of back-to-back atmospheric rivers to hit California in just a few days came ashore last weekend.
It stated in the north before it moved down the coast and parked itself in Southern California, causing hundreds of landslides and killing at least nine people, according to AP.
The final punch came Wednesday afternoon and evening as heavy rain drenched the region.
The forecast was for a potential additional 1 to 3 inches of rain in parts of Los Angeles and San Diego counties, with snow and thunderstorms coming at higher elevations.
But even after the rain stopped, authorities warned of the ongoing threat of collapsing hillsides.
After all of the rain and snow that came down over the past week, it wouldn’t take much for more water, mud, and boulders to slide down fragile hillsides, according to experts.
At least 520 mudslides have already occurred in Los Angeles alone!
Following all of the rain, three multimillion-dollar homes teetering on the edge of a cliff have been deemed safe to live in.
This comes as a surprise to many, as a landslide took out a large part of the cliff from underneath the homes.
Scary storms
Historic storms that arrived in California earlier this month left the Dana Point mansions in a scary position and at risk of falling into the Pacific Ocean.
According to records, the priciest home in the coastline complex is a $15.9 million.
The four-bedroom property is registered to a local radiologist, 82-year-old Lewis Bruggeman.
“The house is fine, it’s not threatened and it will not be red-tagged,” Bruggeman told KCAL.
He continued, “The city agrees that there’s no major structural issue with the house.”
Dana Point City Manager Mike Killebrew told CBS News that a geotechnical engineer and building inspector from the city visited one of the three mansions — the A-frame home farthest out on the edge — and agreed there is “no imminent threat to that home.”
They “went out to the site to assess the situation, as well as talk with the homeowner who owns the residence and slope where the failure occurred,” he said.
The collapse of the Dana Point cliff followed heavy rains in Southern California earlier this month, which caused landslides and flooding across the region.
Video footage captured by ABC7’s helicopter showed one of the homes hanging off the cliffside and partially suspended in the air, while the two others appeared dangerously close to the edge.
A large mound of dirt, sand and rocks sits at the base of the cliff on a beach below the homes.
The three adjacent homes are estimated by real estate company Redfin to be worth approximately $15.9 million, $14.1 million and $12.9 million, respectively.
Though experts claimed the Dana Point cliffside properties are safe to live in, further work will need to be carried out for them to withstand storms in the future.
“That’s going to need major, major work to stabilize that property,” Kyle Tourjé, executive vice president of Alpha Structural, a Los Angeles engineering firm, told the Washington Post.
“We’re seeing more damage, and I think we will continue to see more significant damage,” he said.
“Between back-to-back years of heavy saturation, these houses, these properties … they just can’t take this kind of beating.”
Powerful rainstorms have led to numerous landslides across Southern California this year, but hopefully, they are able to protect homes from being in danger in the future.