Homes in subdivision sink as hill collapses

LAKEPORT, Calif. — Scott and Robin Spivey had a feeling that something was wrong 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 in the Spiveys’ neighborhood in Lake County, about 100 miles north of San Francisco.

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.

Unlike sinkholes of Florida that gobble homes in an instant, this collapse in volcanic country can move many feet one day and a fraction of an inch the next.

Officials believe water that has bubbled to the surface is playing a role in the destruction. But nobody can explain why suddenly there is plentiful water atop the hill in a county with groundwater shortages.

“We have a dormant volcano, and I’m certain a lot of things that happen here (in Lake County) are a result of that, but we don’t know about this,” said Scott De Leon, county public works director.

While some of the subdivision movement is occurring on shallow fill, De Leon said a geologist has warned that the ground could be compromised down to bedrock 25 feet below.

“Considering this is a low-rainfall year and the fact it’s letting go now after all of these years, and the magnitude that it’s letting go, well, it’s pretty monumental,” De Leon said.