San Diego/San Francisco - A hillside partially collapsed in San Diego on Wednesday, ripping a 50-metre-gash in a road and threatening to destroy up to a dozen luxury homes. Emergency officials ordered the homes evacuated as city geologists worked to ascertain the extent of the damage and the probability of further collapses, said Maurice Luque, a spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.
"This area has had some slide problems dating back a number of years," Luque told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "The problems are not new to this area."
"We are working very closely with the city geologist," Luque said. "This is a very fluid situation."