El Nino storms threaten cliff-top homes near San Francisco

Residents of the ocean view apartments teetering precariously on the edge of a steep cliff above the Pacific Ocean are being told to leave their homes, officials announced.

Eroding cliffs along Esplanade Avenue have already led the city to declare apartment buildings at 320 and 330 Esplanade Ave. uninhabitable, and neighboring 310 Esplanade Ave. joined them today, city officials said in a statement.

Pacifica City Manager Lorie Tinfow on Friday declared a local state of emergency, prompted by storm damage to the coastal city about 10 miles south of San Francisco.

Wet El Nino weather has caused unsafe cliff erosion along the California coastline, prompting a state of emergency. “I have nowhere else to go”. The Red Cross has reportedly stepped in to help those forced out of their homes by the crumbling cliffs. The face of the cliffs were coated with reinforced concrete as an added measure to sure up the area, but all efforts now seem to have only been a brief stop-gap endeavor which are now failing.

The Pacifica city council is expected on Monday to ratify an emergency declaration after storms caused by El Niño battered the city’s coastline, leaving behind a sinkhole, a damaged sea wall and a trail of destruction.

A dramatic drown video captured by an employee of local Fox affiliate KTVU shows the extent of the erosion, as a portion of the bluff near the apartments breaks away and falls into the ocean.

According to a report by the San Francisco Chronicle the El Nino storms also damaged the Pacifica Pier seawall. Several of the homes and apartments were abandoned in 2010.

Forecasters have predicted more storms could hit the area later this week.