Power outages have again cropped up on the Palos Verdes Peninsula amid worsening mudslide conditions. Gas and power outages have thrown parts of Rancho Palos Verdes into disarray, while dozens of residents in the nearby town of Rolling Hills are facing their first significant power outage.
The additional power cuts appear to confirm growing concerns about the land movement. Recent growth and expansion stems from a much bigger problem The event is even more devastating than what officials have long identified as the slow-moving Portuguese Bend landslide complex.
Affected Rolling Hills residents will have their gas supply turned off Monday afternoon. Electricity will also be turned off about 48 hours later.
Last weekend, Rolling Hills officials — citing communications from utility companies — announced that about three dozen homes could expect to lose gas service Monday at 3 p.m. and 50 homes could lose power by Wednesday at 6 p.m. because of the ongoing land movement. Evacuation warnings And at least one fire As of Monday afternoon, Southern California Gas officials said 37 homes were expected to run out of gas.
Like many power outages affecting the Portuguese Bend area of Rancho Palos Verdes, these latest outages are indefinite.
Rolling Hills said in last week’s statement that it has asked both Southern California Gas Co. and Southern California Edison to “aggressively consider engineering solutions” to restore service as soon as possible. Rolling Hills Mayor Leah Mirsch reiterated that in a statement to The Times Sunday night.
“The safety and well-being of our residents remains the city’s top priority,” Mirsch wrote. “We are all impacted by power outages and we are committed to holding power companies accountable — pushing them to implement solutions that will restore service quickly and safely.”
Monday in the city of Rolling Hills clarified The local fire station and sheriff’s deputies will not be harmed by the power outage, and officials are working to expedite permits for residents who want to install alternative power such as generators and solar panels. The city statement also said that the Rolling Hills Community Association, a private homeowners group that includes the affected homes, hired a geologist who installed land movement monitors.
The association did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.
For months, the Rolling Hills neighborhood has not been included in ongoing mapping and geological reviews of worsening land movement in Rancho Palos Verdes — which includes cracked foundations, destroyed roads and Altered landscape – However, some parts of the city lie on the border of areas where large-scale land transformation has been recorded.
but in augustWhen Rancho Palos Verdes officials determined that the landslide forces affecting the area were deeper and possibly more widespread than previously believed, a team of city geologists met with some residents of Rolling Hills about new movement observed there.
City geologist Mike Phipps said last month that the new movement at Sinking and Quail Ridge roads in Rolling Hills could be related to the larger landslide complex in Rancho Palos Verdes, but that additional monitoring would be needed to confirm.
SoCal Gas officials said the new shutoff in Rolling Hills follows a “recent geologic hazard survey and an incident in the water system.”
California Water Service spokeswoman Yvonne Kingman confirmed that a main water pipeline in Rolling Hills sprung a leak last week, which she said was “the fourth leak in recent months due to land movement in Rolling Hills.” She said the first of those leaks occurred in late July.
However, he said workers were able to quickly repair the break, and the utility has no plans to shut off its service.
“Based on current conditions, yes, we still plan to continue providing water service in the landslide areas, both for customers’ everyday needs and for fire safety,” Kingman said in a statement. “We also continue to work to locate and repair any leaks caused by the land movement as quickly as possible.”
He said the power outage has not yet affected the company’s multi-faceted leak detection system, adding that many of its sensors operate over cellular service.
The power outage in Rolling Hills comes just days after SCE cut off power to several dozen homes in the Portuguese Bend Beach Club and West Seaview areas of Rancho Palos Verdes. Earlier, about 140 homes in the Portuguese Bend area had their power and gas cut off.
When power is cut off to 50 homes in Rolling Hills on Wednesday, a total of There are about 300 in the area The land agitation has led to indefinite power cuts. SCE spokesman Reggie Kumar declined to say definitively if more cuts are expected, but he said power cuts are a last resort for the utility.
“We are still assessing the situation and looking for ways to provide power to these communities in a safe and reliable way,” Kumar said. “This is a very fluid situation, it all depends on the conditions – electrical equipment needs stable ground.”
Some areas are also facing cable and internet outages and evacuation warnings – although many residents have decided to remain in their homes and are using generators and other off-grid providers.
Earlier, officials had said The power outages on the peninsula are intended to reduce the risk of wildfires caused by electrified wires. Last month, a power line fell and sparked near dry vegetation, causing a small fire in a Portuguese Bend neighborhood.
On September 3, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for the city of Ranchos Palos Verdes. In his proclamation, Newsom said that the ground in the area is shifting up to a foot per week and that the shifting has accelerated significantly following the severe storms of 2023 and 2024.
