| Visitors Now: | |
| Total Visits: | |
| Total Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Riding The Landslide … ranch, residents and horses … EYE Report
Landslide Forces Evacuation of Ranch
Chris Beery of the Ventura County Fire Department keeps watch over a landslide as horses are evacuated Friday morning at Dream Weaver Andalusians ranch on Bradley Road, between Santa Paula and Moorpark. A piece of land about 200 yards long and 100 yards deep slipped downhill about 100 feet.
A Somis ranch, including five residents and 63 horses, was evacuated Friday after a large chunk of an adjacent hillside began sliding.
The horses were removed by residents and neighbors from the Dreamweaver Andalusians ranch at 7680 Bradley Road after a nearly quarter-square-mile of hillside slid into a corral area, Ventura County Fire Department officials said. Three ranch residences were also evacuated.
The landslide started about 6:30 a.m. A ranch employee saw trees dropping and sliding on the hillside and watched for about a half-hour before calling the Fire Department, fire Capt. Dan Preston said.
Authorities estimated the landslide at about 400-by-400 yards, said Capt. Ron Oatman, a department spokesman.
By late morning, the hillside topped by small avocado trees had slipped about 100 feet. The hillside continued to slip through the day at a rate of 1 to 15 feet per hour, officials said.
"It's too slow to see with the naked eye, but literally every hour you can see how far it's moved," Oatman said.
The land detached from a point near the top of the hill, leaving a long vertical scar, and brought down trees and fences. The land bunched up near the foot of the hill.
No horses or people were injured, officials said.
A sheriff's helicopter inspected the area, and the county dispatched a geologist to evaluate the safety of the hillside. Firefighters were posted as lookouts to alert people evacuating horses if the hillside started moving quickly.
In addition to the evacuation, horse trailers were removed from the ranch, and residents retrieved possessions from the three structures on the property.
Officials yellow-tagged the structures, meaning residents can retrieve possessions and do repairs but not stay there overnight, said Raymond Gutierrez, manager of the development and inspection service section of the county Public Works Department.
With loose ground at the top and bottom of the slide, officials were concerned that rain predicted for this weekend could worsen the situation.
"We're worried that if that middle part breaks up some more, the whole thing might turn to a fluid mass and move down," said Thomas Blake, an engineering geologist who evaluated the slide for the county.
Blake said December's rains would be a likely cause for such a deep slide, but further evaluation would be needed to determine the cause.
A slope in the hillside indicated a slide from thousands of years ago might have been reactivated, he said, stressing that further testing would be needed to determine that.
The hillside is owned by Fresno-based Sunshine Agriculture Inc., Gutierrez said.
Small landslides are not uncommon in the county, Preston said, but this "is a pretty significant slide."
Jim Schuler, whose son owns Dreamweaver, said they've been at the location for eight years and the slide was the first on the neighboring hill.
Richard Knowles, who owns the nearby Spirit Equestrian and Bradley Farms, said he was on his way there from his home in South Pasadena on Friday morning when the owner of Dreamweaver called to tell him about the slide.
Knowles agreed to move some of the horses to his property. The logistics were challenging because of the number of stallions at Dreamweaver, as stallions have to be kept separate from mares, Knowles said.
Some of the animals' owners waited anxiously for their turn to move them.
"It's a nightmare. I just want to get them out and get them safe," said Patti Calagna, 56, of Newbury Park.
