Pacifica mobile homes threatened by high waves

PACIFICA, CA

Several powerful waves washed over boulders and one of them slammed into a mobile home. The impact of that wave damaged part of the skirt.

Steve Kester is the property manager of Pacific Skies Estates Mobile Homes Park.

"Fortunately the skirting diverted most of the energy and flowed under it. Some of it did hit the side of the building, broke out the window and went over the roof," he said.

The resident of that home moved out on Monday, while repairs are made. Another home had minor damage.

Residents have been dealing with these big swells for several weeks now. But on Sunday, the waves pounded the cliff even harder, undermining the soil and damaging the asphalt in front of one of the homes.

"Yesterday was the wildest I've seen in 23 years," Pacifica resident Ralph Frost said.

It's the same kind of erosion residents of nearby Esplanade Avenue are experiencing. There, several apartment complexes are threatened.

"The soil on the bluffs here, it's a cemented sand, it's not hard soil. So basically from all the rains we've had and all the beating of the water from the storm surges here, it's making it fail," Tony Fortunato from Engineered Soil Repairs said.

Frost said he was ready for this round of swells.

"The first wave that hit the window and that was over a month ago, I threw the boards up the next day," he said.

Residents say this is not the first time a home has been damaged by the waves.

"The last one we had, came up over that house, took the roof off, the skirt and took the skirt off some of the other homes," Pacifica resident Sandra Taylor said.

Kester says a retaining wall will go up temporarily to try to stop the street from collapsing any further.

"This is Mother Nature and you can't control her and we don't even try to, we just live with her," he said.

No homes had to be evacuated mainly because five of the homes are vacant. The property is neither owned nor maintained by the city; it is privately owned, which means that the mobile home park owners will have to pay for all of the damage.

Copyright © 2024 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.