New Storms Heighten Landslide Fears in O.C. : Warning: Already-saturated bluff-top soil also endangers Capistrano Beach residents near the ocean.

With more storms headed for Southern California, local officials moved swiftly Thursday to assess the likelihood of possible new landslides here, alerting not just bluff-top residents but owners of exclusive oceanfront homes below as well.

Warnings came as South County officials scrambled to cope with Monday night’s massive slide that not only destroyed five homes perched on a cliff in San Clemente, but also poured tons of dirt and rubble onto train tracks that provide the only rail service to and from San Diego. Train service remained canceled, probably through the weekend.

Pacific Coast Highway, shut here since Jan. 16 because of heavy storms, remained closed as officials assessed the stability of the crumbling palisades that tower above the road, which divides San Clemente and Dana Point. While homeowners above in San Clemente contended with disappearing back yards and worse, beachfront residents of Dana Point were warned to look out below.

“It may be advisable for you to consider whether to remain in your home” because of the “potential for another significant slope failure,” the city of Dana Point warned in letters posted this week on 192 homes along Beach Road that runs parallel to Pacific Coast Highway on the ocean side of the railroad tracks.

But having faced down fierce ocean storms in the past, some stalwart residents of Beach Road had no plans to evacuate. “After surviving 30-foot waves pounding against my house, I’m not worried,” Jack Emlet said. “We’re not moving away from our views. Forget it.”

Julie Wootan, who lives about 15 houses down from the landslide, has a ringside view of the devastation. “It’s quite a catastrophe,” she said. “But we’re not going anywhere and I don’t think any of our neighbors are that concerned about it either. But we’re keeping a close eye on those cliffs.”

San Clemente and Dana Point officials haven’t stated flatly that another slide is imminent--they say tests of the unstable cliffs are continuing.

“With the unknown stability of the bluffs, there is potential danger for those residents along Beach Road,” said Andy Anderson, emergency services coordinator for Dana Point. “We told (residents) that it is impossible to predict if there would be another slope failure, how large it could be and when it might occur.”

However, a spokesman for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co., which owns the tracks that were buried by Monday’s landslide, said Thursday that geologists who have inspected the site conclude that another major slide could happen at any time.

“All of them are in agreement: the situation is extremely fragile,” Santa Fe spokesman Mike Martin said. “What everyone is concerned about is that there are sections to the north and south of the slide that haven’t come down yet that are extremely unstable.”

No major earth movement on the bluff was detected Thursday, although authorities said the slide, which covers about 300 feet of Pacific Coast Highway and is 20 feet deep in places, did push about two feet toward the Beach Road homes--an indication that the massive pile of earth is settling.

With more rain arriving, landslide jitters abounded--at least among officials.

“Some of our concern is that if it starts raining, that (ground) could turn into mud and cause another slide,” said William Cameron, city engineer.

Dean Jones, meteorologist for WeatherData, said the new storm sweeping in from the Pacific is expected to dump half an inch of rain in coastal areas and as much as two inches in the mountains.

The storm pattern, he said, will produce light rain countywide, alternating with scattered showers this morning and possibly a few thunderstorms this afternoon, with similar conditions on Saturday.

A three-day dry spell is forecast for Sunday through Tuesday, after which yet another storm is expected.

“Another big storm is developing in the Gulf of Alaska right now,” Jones said. “It is coming very slowly and won’t arrive until midweek next week.

“The ground is now so saturated that whenever you see additional rainfall totals of more than a half-inch there is a danger of more mudslides.”

Tons of concrete and earth poured over the highway, burying power poles and retaining walls before finally stopping about 10 feet from the Beach Road home of Wayne and Lana Schaefer and two other houses.

“Usually, we get threatened from the ocean side,” Wayne Schaefer said. “It was pretty stunning to see danger coming from the other side.”

But residents like Jim Bogart, whose father bought a lot in the Beach Road colony in 1948, then built a home there 21 years later, say they won’t be leaving, despite the city’s alarm.

In all those years, the cliffs have been a solid presence, while the ocean is a mercurial, constantly changing threat, said the retired dentist, who pulled out old photographs showing huge waves pounding against his two-story house.

“The cliffs have been around for a long time; I suspect they’ll be there a while longer,” Bogart said. “None of us who live here are particularly worried (about the slide). It’s kind of small compared to what we’ve lived with for years.”

The small, oceanfront development was built in 1930 by developer Ed Doheny, for whose family the nearby Doheny State Beach is named.

Lined in a row along the ocean with narrow Beach Road between the houses and the Santa Fe train tracks, the dwellings are a collection of the original beach cottages mixed with newer architecture. Residents say the bottom price for homes there tops $1 million.