Cliff’s a killer
Beach-collapse toll now 3
The death toll in the horrific California cliff collapse on a crowded beach outside San Diego rose to three Saturday after two hospitalized victims succumbed to their injuries.
A 30-by-25-foot section of rock weighing about 120 pounds per square foot crashed onto the sand near Grandview Surf Beach in Leucadia at about 3 p.m. Friday.
“They were facing the ocean,” Encinitas Fire Capt. Larry Giles said of the victims.
“So it came from behind them and basically overtook them and crushed them.”
Two victims were identified by authorities as Anne Clave, 35, and her mother, Jule Davis, 65. KNSD-TV identified the third woman as Elizabeth Cox, Clave’s aunt.
The victims had been celebrating Cox surviving breast cancer.
Officials “used heavy equipment . . . to extricate” the women from beneath the massive boulders, Encinitas Deputy Fire Chief Robert Ford said.
The collapse scene was “horrible . . . I can’t imagine being at the beach and your life changing in the blink of an eye,” witness Jackie Benedict told the local NBC affiliate.
Beach chairs, towels and umbrellas were strewn around the fallen sandstone as firefighters and rescuers surveyed the damage.
Homes sit atop the cliffs, overlooking the beach.
Giles, who said he had witnessed previous collapses, said they’re “actually fairly quiet . . . what you’re hearing is the impact of the weight landing on the sand . . . if you dump a bucket of sand on the beach, imagine that times 1,000. That’s what you’re going to hear.”
Clean-up crews raced the encroaching ocean Friday night, as high tide crept closer to the death site.
Four search-and-rescue dogs combed the site to ensure no other victims were trapped, Ford said. The cliffs are the property of homeowners.
A portion of the beach surrounding the collapse remained closed Saturday after a geotechnician determined that an adjacent portion of the cliff was at risk of falling apart.
The lifeguard stand was moved from the area, Giles said, adding that the homes were not at risk.