Homeowners Looking Out Above, Below : Landslide: With hillside stabilization work halted by rain, Newport residents hope houses will hang on through latest storm.

The good news was there was only slight slippage Wednesday at the bottom of a landslide that threatens three homes. The bad news was that an overnight storm was expected to dump as much as an inch of rain by this morning.

“If that happens,” said Bob Riblett, whose Sandcastle Drive home is one of those threatened, “all bets are off.”

A series of cold fronts was expected to slide over Orange County on Wednesday night and bring showers through this morning, said James McCutcheon, a meteorologist for WeatherData, which provides forecasts for The Times. After that, he said, “you can expect a warming trend for the weekend.”

The latter would be wildly welcomed by the owners of three homes on Sandcastle Drive, where the land behind the houses began sliding slowly toward the bottom of a 150-foot canyon known as Buck Gully.

Although the houses were built by Lusk Homes, the Irvine Co.--which owns the slope--had begun stabilizing the hillside. Eventually, the company planned to fill it in with about 300 truckloads of dry soil.

But work has stopped because of the recent rains.

Building Department Director Ray Schuller said that a contractor for the Irvine Co. will be installing measurement devices, called inclinometers, which monitor any slippage.

“This way,” Schuller said, “they can monitor the slope way down deep before they begin shoring up the hillside. It also serves as a warning system, so if anything happens they can be prepared for it.”

In addition, the contractor has bored holes in front of the homes and is pumping out water to help alleviate any drainage from the backs of the properties where the problem occurred, said Dawn McCormick, an Irvine Co. spokeswoman.

“We’ve definitely committed considerable resources with manpower and technical support,” she said.

The work to fill in the gully will begin after at least one day without rain. Plans call for the base of the landslide to be filled in first, Schuller said.

“We have to put the soil in on the soggy mess near the bottom first,” he said. “What’s been happening is the downstream slide is very wet and it continues to settle.”

After the bottom is filled in, the contractor will then begin closer to the homes.

“We intend to be very cautious with any heavy equipment in that area,” Schuller said.

McCormick said the Irvine Co. decided “not to worry about who’s liable for this, but to go ahead and provide our resources. We haven’t determined yet who did the (original) grading of the site.”