California Dreaming?
In a comment on the wildfires Ellroon noted that “California seasons are Mudslides, Earthquakes, Fires, and Heatwaves.” There might be another one: Subsidence.
The CBC reports that Homeowners are fleeing a sinking California subdivision. The homes are in Lake County, about 100 miles north of San Francisco on a hill with views of Clear Lake and the dormant Mount Konocti volcano. They are in a subdivision that was built 30 years ago which has experienced no problems until recently, when sections started slowly sinking. Some of the sections have dropped 10 feet.
Among the guesses as to the cause has been the shifting of an aquifer as water has been noticed on the surface where there are no known sources for it, and the area has received little rain in the last year.
In addition to their houses being torn apart, it is probable that the owners’ insurance policies do not cover the problem.
4 comments
This is a special case of “earthquakes”, since knowing the geology of the area it is likely that a fissure has opened beneath the subdivision that is sending steaming water upwards to erode away the soil. A lot of homeowners are going to be sending jingle mail to their mortgage-holder, since here in California a mortage-holder’s sole recourse is to take title to the (now worthless) property via foreclosure. Maybe Wells Fargo and Bank of America will have better luck getting money out of the insurers than these homeowners did…
I’m not a fan of hanging around volcanoes. ‘Dormant’ is an opinion, not a fact, and they are using geothermal out of the ground, so they know it is possible. The lack of rain may have allowed something to get hotter than normal and expand to break new outlet.
Yeah, let the banks and insurance companies battle it out while people get on with their lives.
I thought Florida was the only place getting alligator filled sink holes… Maybe we’ll be adding another season to California’s list: Volcanoes!
We do it to ourselves down here by pumping the ground water out of the underground caverns in pursuit of growth. Without the water, the caverns collapse, sucking in whatever is over them.
At least people have time to move out in California. Down here it just happens.