longhorn
New member
One by one, homes in Calif. subdivision sinking
May 11, 2013 9:36 PM EDT
By TRACIE CONE
Associated Press
(EXCERPT)
LAKEPORT, Calif. (AP) - Scott and Robin Spivey had a sinking feeling that something was wrong with their home when cracks began snaking across their walls in March.
The cracks soon turned into gaping fractures, and within two weeks their 600-square-foot garage broke from the house and the entire property - manicured lawn and all - dropped 10 feet below the street.
It wasn't long before the houses on both sides collapsed as the ground gave way in the Spivey's neighborhood in Lake County, about 100 miles north of San Francisco.
"We want to know what is going on here," said Scott Spivey, a former city building inspector who lived in his four-bedroom, Tudor-style dream home for 11 years.
Eight homes are now abandoned and 10 more are under notice of imminent evacuation as a hilltop with sweeping vistas of Clear Lake and the Mount Konocti volcano swallows the subdivision built 30 years ago.
The situation has become so bad that mail delivery was ended to keep carriers out of danger.
"It's a slow-motion disaster," said Randall Fitzgerald, a writer who bought his home in the Lakeside Heights project a year ago.
CREDIT: One by one, homes in Calif. subdivision sinking - CBS 5 - KPHO
May 11, 2013 9:36 PM EDT
By TRACIE CONE
Associated Press
(EXCERPT)
LAKEPORT, Calif. (AP) - Scott and Robin Spivey had a sinking feeling that something was wrong with their home when cracks began snaking across their walls in March.
The cracks soon turned into gaping fractures, and within two weeks their 600-square-foot garage broke from the house and the entire property - manicured lawn and all - dropped 10 feet below the street.
It wasn't long before the houses on both sides collapsed as the ground gave way in the Spivey's neighborhood in Lake County, about 100 miles north of San Francisco.
"We want to know what is going on here," said Scott Spivey, a former city building inspector who lived in his four-bedroom, Tudor-style dream home for 11 years.
Eight homes are now abandoned and 10 more are under notice of imminent evacuation as a hilltop with sweeping vistas of Clear Lake and the Mount Konocti volcano swallows the subdivision built 30 years ago.
The situation has become so bad that mail delivery was ended to keep carriers out of danger.
"It's a slow-motion disaster," said Randall Fitzgerald, a writer who bought his home in the Lakeside Heights project a year ago.
CREDIT: One by one, homes in Calif. subdivision sinking - CBS 5 - KPHO