Moving On, Homes and Lives in Ruins

Rennae Brewer will never forget the peculiar roar of the earth the night it suddenly lurched and shifted, crushing buildings and splintering trees as a Laguna Niguel landslide upended her family and the lives of dozens of neighbors.

“I’ll always remember that noise, that sound,” she said. “Buildings crumbling, tiles popping, little explosions one right after another. It was like a train and a tornado at the same time.”

Within days of the rain-triggered landslide on March 19, at least 30 families had been evacuated from the Crown Cove Condominiums at the base of a hill along Crown Valley Parkway and in the Niguel Summit subdivision at the top of the hill.

In September, they agreed to a $9.4-million settlement in a 4-year-old lawsuit that provided for buyouts of all 41 condominium owners, plus moving expenses. They must be out by Jan. 5.

So on Saturday, many of the dislocated condo owners gathered for one last visit--former neighbors drawn close by a disaster that shattered the anonymity of their suburban lives, forcing them to meet one another in some cases for the first time and to band together in a common struggle.

“We’ve been doing a lot of hugging and kissing,” said Brewer, the shredded ruins of former neighbors’ homes piled around her, along with security fences and sandbags. “People asking each other, ‘Where are you living? When are you moving?’ It’s a little sad.”

As the sound of a lone excavator crawling across the crumbling hillside droned in the background, the few remaining residents and many former residents of Crown Cove mingled with one another, with their lawyers and officials from their property management firm.

“It’s kind of an ending and a beginning for them,” said Krista Mortenson of Lordon Management Co., the property manager.

Before scattering to new homes, they ate sandwiches, sipped drinks, swapped memories and had a visit by a Santa Claus who brought gifts and balloons for the children.

“We’ve all sat here with tears in our eyes, looking at our old places and saying goodbye,” said Mike DeStefano, whose condo was destroyed in the landslide. “We’ve been looking at how much more this hill’s moved.”

They also talked about lessons learned: Hire your own geologist when buying hillside property, said some. Don’t buy on hillsides, said others. Always check the soil reports on your subdivision.

“After last year, we’re not sure we want to be near the hills or the ocean,” said Brewer, who is moving to Redondo Beach with her husband and two children.

The Crown Cove condos were built in 1980. DeStefano and other condo owners began moving in by 1981. A few years later, developers started grading the hillside above them for the 1,500-unit Niguel Summit subdivision.

Building on land where slides had occurred in the past, developers added millions of additional cubic yards of fill and graded the ridge top into a long, flat surface for upscale homes with impressive views, according to city files and court records.

DeStefano said problems with ground movement were first noticed in 1986, after grading had begun. Repairs were made by the Niguel Summit developer, but problems continued over the years and geologists finally warned of an imminent failure in late 1997, prompting evacuations at the top and bottom of the failing slope. Saturated by heavy winter rains, the hill buckled in a landslide about 3 a.m. on March 19.

Ever since, residents’ lives have been consumed by the details of salvaging, suing, settling and relocating.

“We’ve kind of forgotten about Christmas this year,” said condo owner Jeffrey Nehrbas. “We’ll be moving that week.”

Although condos that remain on the site are not considered safe, some families have remained in their homes until the bitter end. The buildings will be demolished and the site redeveloped after the slope is stabilized.

Crown Cove’s last remaining occupants said living among the ruins of abandoned condos, overgrown yards and landslide debris can be eerie.

Terry Odle, a holdout who plans to move Jan. 5, said the wreckage has attracted the curious each day and he suspects would-be looters have cased the complex.

“We see a fence pushed over and have to call the police. Every day we have looky-loos driving through,” Odle said.

And the menacing noises of the landslide have never stopped, residents said.

“Even during the summer, when it was dry, you would hear glass pop and shatter, or a fence sort of creak and fall over,” said condo owner Donna Brandt. “It was really unnerving.

“This past week, with the heavy rains, it got really loud, and I thought, ‘It’s time to get out of here.’ ”