San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Collapsed cliff in California claims three lives along beach
ENCINITAS, Calif. — Officials Saturday reopened much of a Southern California beach where a sea cliff collapsed, killing three people.
Encinitas Lifeguard Capt. Larry Giles said Saturday that a lifeguard would be posted near the collapse zone on Grandview Beach, which was still marked by yellow caution tape. Someone left a bouquet of flowers on a rock.
A 30-foot-long hunk of the cliff in San Diego County collapsed Friday afternoon. Rescuers rushed to dig out victims, but a woman died at the scene and two more victims died at hospitals. Two other people were injured. All were adults.
A KNSD-TV helicopter captured footage of beach chairs, towels, surfboards and beach toys strewn about the sand.
Search dogs were brought in to hunt for other possible victims, and a skip loader was brought in to move the dense, heavy debris. No other victims were found by late Friday night.
Other beachgoers and lifeguards at a nearby tower scrambled to the massive pile of debris, which was estimated to weigh tens of thousands of pounds, to help dig out victims.
“I saw first responders, and I saw lifeguards frantically digging people out of the debris,” Jim Pepperdine, who lives nearby, told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Pepperdine said he saw people trying to resuscitate a woman before her body was covered.
Another person was taken to a hospital, and a person who had minor injuries was treated at the scene, according to statements from the city. The names and ages of those killed and injured were not
The beach is reached by wooden stairs from a parking lot above. Homes atop the cliff were not in any danger, Encinitas Fire Chief Mike Stein said.
The cliff remained unstable and complicated the search effort, Stein said.
Suburbs north of San Diego have contended with rising water levels in the Pacific Ocean, pressuring bluffs along the coast. Some bluffs are fortified with concrete walls to prevent multimillion-dollar homes from falling into the sea.
Long stretches of beach in Encinitas are narrow strips of sand between stiff waves and towering rock walls. People lounging on beach chairs or blankets are sometimes surprised as waves roll past them and within a few feet of the walls.
Cliffside collapses are not
immediately
released. unusual as the ocean chews away at the base of the sandstone, authorities said. Some beach areas were marked with signs warning of slide dangers.
Several people have been killed or injured over the years in bluff collapses. The Tribune reported Rebecca Kowalczyk, 30, of Encinitas died near the same area Jan. 16, 2000, when a 330-footwide chunk of bluff fell and buried her.
Bluffs give way four to eight times a year in Southern California but “nothing of this magnitude,” said Brian Ketterer, southern field division chief of California State Parks.
“This is a naturally eroding coastline,” Giles said. “There’s really no rhyme or reason, but that’s what it does naturally. … This is what it does, and this is how are beaches are actually partially made. It actually has these failures.”