CARSON : Homeowner’s Plans for Texas Move Crumble in Mudslide

Jim Blackshear, 58, planned to retire last month, sell his home here and move to Texas, where he had already picked out the dream house for his retirement.

But those plans shattered Jan. 10, when thousands of tons of soggy hillside slammed into the back of his Gladwick Street home. Mud broke through a back window and shook the house so hard Blackshear’s wife, Betti, thought it was an earthquake.

Hundreds of feet of fencing, the neighbor’s shed and concrete foundation, and two 30-foot trees slid downhill in a muddy mess, rolling into the back wall of the house.

Since the slide, the couple’s insurance company has declined their claim, they found out their income is above the city’s limit for grants, and they’ve been told not to move any mud for fear of bringing the rest of the hill--and their neighbor’s house--down on top of them.

“Our American dream has crumbled,” said Betti Blackshear, 50.

City workers and members of the California Conservation Corps removed some of the debris during the recent rain and later spread hundreds of square feet of plastic tarp over the Blackshear’s property and that of his neighbors, Katie and John Walker.

But now that the immediate danger has passed, the Blackshears say they aren’t getting any help, and they don’t know what to do next.

The city has told them that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will handle their case, but FEMA’s response was to send the Blackshears a check for less than $1,000. They have appealed the agency’s assessment and hope to qualify for some additional aid.

Contractors have told the Blackshears they will need a soil engineer to determine the safest way to move the tons of soil and repair the hillside.

In the meantime, what could be salvaged from their family room has been moved to another part of the four-bedroom house. The Blackshears say the disruption of their lives is taking a toll on their family.

Every time the clouds roll in, Jim Blackshear clambers over the muddy tarps watching the hillside above, and wondering how he will put his life back together. “I’m so angry I have to laugh to live,” he said.