Is this house falling into the ocean?

[Muhammad]

I hear the whole state will fall in eventually.

In billions of years yes.

 

[WM75Guy]

Yeah well out here in California there are a lot of "clauses" and "disclaimers" in your policies that give insurance companies the right to not pay when, you know, "natural" stuff happens. As a renter the financial risk is pretty low I think.

Randy, that's a pretty wild video... was not expecting to see the house hanging over the cliff like that!

I got in touch with two structural firms today... both are too busy to even talk for the next two months. That's the way it is right now... everybody is fully booked and can't even get out to look at new work for weeks and weeks.

It is a beautiful view from the cliffs. Unfortunately the cliffs are made of limestone. Limestone is porous and dissolves. Water started running into the rock from the surface above and caused a fracture, resulting in large parts breaking off. The cliffs continue to fall into Lake Whitney. Boats avoid going close to them as there is no notice when a piece breaks off. Same process as a sinkhole, limestone erodes underground till the surface collapses. Our property has a lake view but far away from the lake on a hill. It is where we hope to build when we retire.

Here is the current view. The arrow shows where the house was that burned. The long line is where the crack in the ground was in the video. The large pieces in the water are the parts of the cliff with the trees and shrubs, between the crack and the cliff edge. Needless to say the property value of the house with the pool took a hit.

 

[Darryle]

It is moving, my recommendation would be to move now. Twenty five feet is not that far. Mother nature can be brutal. Here is what happened in the subdivision where we own property. The cliff rapidly gave way and undermined the house. To minimize debris going into the lake the decision was made to burn it up, as it was too unstable and dangerous to tear down. If you look closely at the end of the video you can see a large crack in the ground where a large part of the cliff going over to the point was getting ready to fall. It has since fallen, putting the house that was next door to the house that burned much closer to the cliff edge.

Lake Whitney, remember that one well.