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A massive landslide damaged and partially buried a home in the Hollywood Hills as an incoming storm has neighbors worried about more significant damage to come.
The home is located on Sunset View Drive and is just above the iconic Chateau Marmont hotel.
The property was undergoing renovations at the time and the owner said he was just days away from moving his family in. His neighbors called him on Wednesday night with the devastating news.
Cell phone video from a neighbor captured the moment the steep hillside above the home began to crumble.
“The hill is giving, oh my gosh!” the neighbor is heard saying in the video. “And it’s making all sorts of noises, like it’s cracking.”
Another neighbor, David Marvisi, witnessed the shocking collapse.
“We were home yesterday and suddenly we heard the bang and we came outside,” Marvisi said. “We saw all this dirt came down at 5 o’clock in the afternoon.”
The shifting mud settled on the rear portion of the home as the heavy dirt pushed its way through the back patio door, fully covered the windows and parts of the roof, and wrapped around the general exterior.
“I believe it’s about $500,000 dollars to fix this,” Marvisi said. “The house is about $50,000 in damage but he needs a shotcrete because his property starts from there and all the way to the end.”
Fire crews arrived at the home to cordon off the premises and city officials have since red-tagged the property.
The homeowner said he’s hoping city or county officials will help with the cost of removing the debris and repairing his home from this natural disaster.
“There is no insurance that covers this,” Marvisi said. “There’s no way you can get insurance to cover that.”
Marvisi has lived across the street for 21 years and said he’s witnessed some hillside crumbling in the past, however, none were ever this severe.
“You have to be very careful,” he said. “You have to know what you’re getting into because Mother Nature can cost you some money.”
On Thursday, city safety inspectors and geologists were inspecting the property and assessing the hillside, along with the homes directly above it.
So far, no other houses have been affected by the landslide, however, with a storm expected to arrive Friday, residents are preparing for the worst.
Earlier on Thursday, at least three homes in Newport Beach were also endangered by a destructive landslide.
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