ANAHEIM : Slide Signs Anger Some Residents

City crews put signs warning of landslide dangers in some Anaheim Hills neighborhoods Monday, angering some residents who have already seen their property values tumble.

“This is going to be another drag on our property values,” said resident Mike Clayton, a Ford Motor Co. employee relations manager whose house on Rimwood Drive was damaged by the slide.

The 25-acre slide area began shifting dramatically two months ago, forcing the evacuation of more than 40 homes. The land continues to shift slowly today.

“I wish they would have put the signs up last April before I bought my house,” Clayton said.

The five black and yellow signs are about three feet tall and sit atop six-foot poles. With lettering that reads “Caution--Landslide Area,” the sign gives a grocery list of possible dangers, including uneven, broken, depressed or mended streets; exposed electrical wires; and unstable slopes and structures.

It ends with the note, “Not all hazards are marked.”

“Even though some of the evacuated people are back in, it is still a dangerous area and we want to remind residents there are still hazards,” city spokesman Brett Colson said.

Eleven homeowners have been told within the last 10 days that they can move back into the evacuated neighborhoods, while another 32 will be allowed back in within the next month. Three homes are so severely damaged that they may never be occupied again, officials say.

The slide was first reported to the city last June, when residents noticed buckling in their sidewalks and streets.

Between June and early January, the hillside moved about an inch, geologists say. But on Jan. 18, after 13 days of heavy rains, the slide accelerated and for several days it moved at a rate of more than an inch a day in some spots. The movement in some areas was 15 inches.

The slide slowed within two weeks, but it still moves at a rate of an inch a month, geologists say.

“That’s a foot a year,” Clayton said. “We’re still sitting on a time bomb.”