Lake County officials were scrambling Wednesday to alleviate worsening conditions at a Lakeport subdivision hit by a recurring landslide.
Two more homes were posted as uninhabitable Wednesday afternoon and occupants of six others were issued voluntary evacuation notices, said Kevin Ingram, a county administrator.
The slide began in late March at Lakeside Heights, a hillside neighborhood of 29 homes north of Lakeport. Several families were displaced and county officials declared the site a local emergency. Five homes that sustained dramatic damage had been declared uninhabitable prior to Wednesday's actions.
On Tuesday, workers who were modifying sewer lines to lessen the risk of a landslide-related sewage spill were hampered when water kept filling the excavated area.
Garey Hurn, a board member of the Lakeside Heights Homeowner's Association, said that water further supported the suspicion that underground springs are the source of the land instability. An initial county report had listed a leak in the homeowners' association irrigation line as a possible cause.
County officials held an emergency meeting with neighborhood residents Monday night. Representatives from the California Emergency Management Agency and the California Geological Survey also participated.
The meeting didn't shine fresh light on the issue, said Jag Singh, whose corner home was gradually destroyed by the landslide. "We don't even know where the water is coming from still," said Singh. "They still haven't found it."
Singh moved his family to nearby Nice, and said he has had trouble getting a response from his insurance company about compensation for loss of his home.
The Lakeside Heights Homeowner's Association members will meet Thursday evening to discuss their role in the crisis, said Hurn.
Homeowners and county officials have raised questions about the original and secondary developers of the subdivision. Ingram said a department of real estate investigation into the second developer was conducted about 10 years ago, but he did not have immediate information on the outcome of the investigation.
The county's scheduled demolition of at least one of the homes has been delayed because of concern that the weight of equipment could affect the landslide, said Ingram.
The county has ordered special equipment to monitor the water going in and out of the area, Ingram said. State officials also are monitoring the situation and the county is giving them daily updates.
The Board of Supervisors requested state and federal emergency assistance, but the area has not yet been declared a state emergency.
"I'm hoping we'll be able to get the emergency declaration from the state of California," said Hurn. "Our primary focus is to get the total picture of what's going on up here and what's causing the earth movement."
(Staff Writer Melody Karpinski can be reached at 521-5205 or Melody.Karpinski@pressdemocrat.com.)
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