Page 7 - Aruba Today
P. 7
U.S. NEWS A7
Friday 12 February 2016
American Living:
California residents live on the edge of crumbling cliffs
KRISTIN J. BENDER these beaches and served In this image provided by the California Coastal Records Project, cliff erosion is seen below the
Associated Press to protect the cliffs has Esplanade Apartments in Pacifica, Calif. Living with the Pacific Ocean as your backyard has its
PACIFICA, Calif. (AP) — been greatly reduced by benefits. But the crumbling ocean cliffs have forced dozens to move quickly and at a high cost.
Sonja Thompson lives so human activity such as Stll, others remain unsure of when the call to leave might come.
close to the edge of an damming, flood control
80-foot bluff above the and dredging, Barnard (AP Photo/Kenneth Adelman)
Pacific Ocean that when said.
paragliders fly by “you can Sea level rise has exacer- The Red Cross gave them for nearly $200 a night so friends until they can find a
almost high-five them.” bated the problem, and $250 but local hotels go they say they’ll likely rely on new place to plant roots. q
Having the Pacific as your its projected acceleration
backyard has its benefits, over the next century will
and its dangers. Crumbling expose the coast to more
cliffs have forced dozens wave attack and erosion,
to leave their homes and he added. The Pacifica
others like Thompson may cliffs have been crumbling
have to join them as EL for decades, as aerial pho-
Nino-fueled storms batter tographs from the Califor-
the coast. nia Coastal Records Proj-
Last summer, whale watch- ects show.
ing was at its prime and The toll has been heavy
people who live on the in recent years. In 2010,
cliffs of Pacifica were treat- two apartment buildings
ed to more than 200 dol- undermined by previ-
phin sightings. The views ous storms were evacu-
are spectacular, and the ated and face demolition.
air feels like it’s a million Last month, during El Nino
miles away from smoggy storms, residents of another
cityscapes. apartment building and
“All the nature and wild- two homes were forced to
life I read about in New move out. Continuing ero-
York I get to see here up sion has left the apartments
close and personal here,” sitting unsafely on the edge
said Druth McClure, who of an 80-foot bluff.
moved from the East Coast “We’re not fearful of fall-
to a waterfront apartment ing off. They’ve been so
here 20 years ago. diligent that they are go-
But some residents last ing to tell us if we are in any
month came home from imminent danger,” said
work to find yellow “restrict- Thompson, who lives in an
ed use” tags on their front oceanfront apartment with
doors, which required them her wife, Karlie Thompson.
to start packing. The benefits of the beauti-
“At some point and time ful spot, she said, outweigh
we won’t be able to live the worry.
here. These cliffs are primar- “The paragliders, they are
ily packed sand so they will so close you can almost
no doubt crumble away,” high five them,” she said,
said Jackie James, who adding there was one in a
occasionally stays with her Santa suit over the holidays.
fiance at an ocean-view U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier and
apartment still safe to oc- city officials have pledged
cupy. “What do they say to seek state and federal
about nature? It’s a relent- assistance.
less march.” Still, many forced-out resi-
Pacifica, which means dents say they feel aban-
peaceful in Spanish, is any- doned, left alone to find
thing but that when heavy money for moving, storage
rains and big surf batter this lockers and new housing
largely working class city in the pricey San Francisco
of roughly 40,000, about Bay Area.
10 miles south of San Fran- “Some of us tried squatting
cisco. The area is one of on the first night and almost
the two most erosion-prone got arrested,” said Gordon
stretches of the state’s King, a 73-year-old dis-
coastline, along with the abled Vietnam vet and for-
Monterey Bay area, ac- mer merchant marine who
cording to Patrick Barnard, lived in a cramped apart-
a coastal geologist for ment with his wife Lana.
the U.S. Geological Survey. “We’ve been fighting
Sediment from watersheds time,” he said while pack-
that historically sustained ing their possessions.
