The Wonders of Mother Nature

[Subdeacon Joe]

Lakeport Subdivision Sinking

 

Eight homes are now abandoned and 10 more are under notice of
imminent evacuation as a hilltop with sweeping vistas of Clear Lake and
the Mount Konocti volcano swallows the subdivision built 30 years ago.

The situation has gotten so bad that mail delivery was ended to keep carriers out of danger.

"It's a slow-motion disaster," said Randall Fitzgerald, a writer who
bought his home in the Lakeside Heights project a year ago.

Unlike sinkholes of Florida that can gobble homes in an instant, this
collapse in hilly volcanic country can move many feet on one day and
just a fraction of an inch the next.

Officials believe water
that has bubbled to the surface is playing a role in the destruction.
But nobody can explain why suddenly there is plentiful water atop the
hill in a county with groundwater shortages.

"That's the big
question," said Scott De Leon, county public works director. "We have a
dormant volcano, and I'm certain a lot of things that happen here (in
Lake County) are a result of that, but we don't know about this."

Other development on similar soil in the county is stable, county officials said.

 

http://binaryapi.ap.org/6273dd6d4e07470e9e77cb27ecd8daea/460x.jpg

 

http://bigstory.ap.org/photo/sinking-subdivision-8

 

Lake County, and especially the area right around Clearlake, is drop dead GORGEOUS. But, Mother Nature in CA kind of does what she wants. Or maybe this explains it:

 

Homeowners now wonder whether fissures have opened below their
hilltop, allowing water to seep to the surface. But they're so perplexed
they also talk about the land being haunted and are considering asking
the local Native American tribe if the hilltop was an ancient graveyard.

"Someone said it must be hexed," said Blanka Doren, a
72-year-old German immigrant who poured her life savings into the house
she bought in 1999 so she could live on the rental income.