Latest Updates

Weekly report: about 590 million gallons pumped; City now says ten of the original 11 wells remain in service; PV Drive South drainage held in about 0.9 inch of rain

Added Nov. 5, 2026. From the City Manager's weekly report of Nov. 5 (No. 26-44), which also summarizes the Nov. 4 Council meeting (see the next entry):

• Dewatering: about 590 million gallons (1,813 acre-feet) extracted since the City's deep dewatering well (DDW) program began in September 2024. The report says that "Ten of the original 11 DDWs installed by the City remain in service," and that "One DDW will start redrill this week" (p. 24). The Oct. 28 report had said nine of the original 11 (No. 26-43, p. 20); the City has not explained the change, and the Nov. 5 report gives no count of operating wells. City documents still differ on how many are running: eight of nine (weekly report, Oct. 21), seven of nine with two redrilled wells offline for low production (staff report for the Nov. 4 meeting; well table dated Oct. 19), and "8 Online," with "DDW-5 re-drill pending," in the City's presentation at the Nov. 4 meeting (slide 2, marked as updated Nov. 3). The same slide gives 15.6 million gallons pumped in October, also marked as updated; its totals (586 million gallons; 1,794 acre-feet) are not marked as updated and are lower than both weekly reports. The Nov. 5 report does not name the wells or say whether the well the Oct. 21 report described as pending pump installation and energization has been energized.
• Rain and PV Drive South: the City says about 0.9 inch of rain fell on the area the weekend of Oct. 31, 2026, and that the PV Drive South drainage improvements "performed as intended and required no pumping operations or roadway closures" (p. 24). City staff and contractors patrolled citywide for storm-related problems from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1, and the report says no emergencies were reported that week (pp. 30–31). Public Works crews also installed what the report calls "solar power banks to run flood control pumps reducing noise near Dauntless Drive and Exultant Drive in the Sea View neighborhood" (p. 28).
• Nature Preserve: the City closed the Palos Verdes Nature Preserve on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, after 0.35 inch of rain overnight, and reopened the trails the next day after inspections (p. 43). When we checked on Nov. 5, 2026, the City's trail conditions page said "Palos Verdes Nature Preserve is Open" and again listed its standing closures: Abalone Cove Beach, Sacred Cove Beach and all beach-access trails in the Abalone Cove Reserve, closed since July 9, 2024; the open space, trails, beach and archery range east of Inspiration Point, closed since Sept. 27, 2024; and named trails in the Portuguese Bend, Filiorum, Forrestal and Ocean Trails reserves. The City says the Preserve may close again after significant rain.
• Coming up (tentative agendas dated Nov. 5, pp. 51–54; they can change): on Nov. 17, "Update from SCE regarding outages and improvements to infrastructure" and "Consider a report on the landslide hydrology and hydraulics." The City's presentation at the Nov. 4 meeting says Geosyntec's hydrology and hydraulics study of the landslide complex is "Scheduled to present to the City Council on November 17, 2026" (slide 30). The Dec. 1 landslide items are unchanged from the Oct. 28 report: an extension of the El Niño emergency resolution, "Award of PWA for PVDS Storm Drain Repairs" (the title does not say where), a public hearing on an appeal of a Director's Determination under RPVMC 15.20 (the Landslide Regulations), an urgency ordinance on RPVMC Chapter 17.72 (coastal permits; the title does not say whether it concerns the landslide area), and extending the landslide emergency resolutions with a progress report. New on Dec. 15: "Certify 2026 Election Results for City Council and Measure RS"; no landslide emergency renewal is listed that day. On Jan. 19 and March 16, 2027, extensions of the emergency for the forecasted "Super El Nino." "Affirm continued landslide emergency contracting" is listed at every regular meeting through March 16, 2027. No buyout purchase, demolition or GHAD item is listed (Meetings).
• Civic Center site and Wayfarers Chapel: the report includes an Oct. 29, 2026 City letter to the National Park Service about the deed restrictions on part of the Civic Center site (pp. 9, 64–66). The City writes that it has not signed the General Services Administration's Amended Declaration of Restrictions because complying with its four-year construction timeline "is not tenable due to the ongoing and significant impacts from the recent acceleration of the Portuguese Bend Landslide Complex," and that GSA has not accepted its request to extend that window to eight to ten years. The letter also says the City, Wayfarers Chapel and the U.S. Coast Guard have held "preliminary discussions" about the possibility of reassembling the chapel on Coast Guard property at the western edge of the Civic Center. That would involve transferring the 3.9-acre Battery Barnes parcel from the Coast Guard to the City, followed by a potential lease to the chapel (pp. 65–66).

Because of the Veterans Day holiday, the City says its next weekly report will be published on Thursday, Nov. 12 (p. 6).

Sources: City Manager's Weekly Administrative Report No. 26-44 (Nov. 5, 2026), a large PDF (its inside page headers are misdated "October 28, 2026"); next report on p. 6, Civic Center letter on pp. 9 and 64–66, dewatering and winterization on p. 24, Sea View pumps on p. 28, storm patrols on pp. 30–31, Preserve on p. 43, tentative agendas on pp. 51–54 · City Public Works presentation, Nov. 4, 2026 Council meeting, Item 3 (PDF), slides 2 and 30 · Weekly Report No. 26-43 (Oct. 28, 2026), p. 20 · Weekly Report No. 26-42 (Oct. 21, 2026), p. 20 · staff report for the Nov. 4, 2026 Council meeting, a large PDF, pp. 7 and 17–18 · City trail conditions page (checked Nov. 5, 2026). Next check: the City's Nov. 12 weekly report (well counts) and the November survey.

Nov. 4 Council: landslide emergencies and PV Drive South ban renewed for 60 days; City video says the Council approved nearly $56 million in federal grant funding

Added Nov. 5, 2026. At the Council's Nov. 4, 2026 meeting, City staff gave the latest landslide update (Regular Business Item 3). According to the City Manager's Nov. 5 weekly report, the Council "renewed for 60 days the local emergencies in the landslide area and the temporary prohibition of motorcycles and bicycles along a two-mile stretch of Palos Verdes Drive South" (Weekly Report No. 26-44, p. 5). The report gives no vote count, resolution numbers or new end date, and for all of the Council's actions it refers readers to the meeting video. The City had not posted the adopted resolutions or a new end date as of Nov. 5, 2026. The staff report had asked the Council to extend the emergencies for 60 days, through Jan. 3, 2027 (pp. 52–53). The City's tentative agendas dated Nov. 5 list the next extension of the landslide emergency resolutions, with a progress report, for Dec. 1, 2026 (Weekly Report No. 26-44, pp. 51–52). What staff had recommended is in the Nov. 4 agenda entry.

Update Nov. 6: in the City's RPVtv video update posted Nov. 5, 2026, City Manager Ara Mihranian says the Council approved nearly $56 million in federal grant funding on Nov. 4: more than $54 million for the voluntary buyout of 27 red- and yellow-tagged properties and $1.9 million for permanent power to the deep dewatering wells. Staff had recommended accepting and appropriating $55,964,462 (staff report, pp. 1–2). Patch reported on Nov. 6 that the vote on the grants was 5-0 and that the Council also approved the Geo-Logic Associates (+$2.9 million) and LSA Associates (+$150,937) amendments; the City's video update and its Nov. 5 weekly report do not mention a vote count or the amendments, and the minutes had not been posted as of Nov. 6, 2026. The video also says the Council again extended the landslide emergency and continued the restrictions on bicycles, motorcycles and similar vehicles along parts of PV Drive South.

• The grants and the two amendments. The same weekly report still describes the grant items in the future tense: the Council "will consider formally accepting" over $54 million in FEMA buyout funds for the 27 Round 1 and 2 properties and over $1.9 million in Pre-Disaster Mitigation funds for permanent well power (p. 5). It does not mention the Geo-Logic Associates or LSA Associates amendments. As of Nov. 5, 2026, the City's written reports did not say whether the Council accepted and appropriated the $55,964,462 in grants that staff recommended or approved the two design and permitting amendments (Geo-Logic Associates, +$2,900,000; LSA Associates, +$150,937). Update Nov. 6: the City's RPVtv video update, posted Nov. 5, says the Council approved nearly $56 million in federal grant funding. Patch reported on Nov. 6 that the Council also approved both amendments; the City's video update and its Nov. 5 weekly report do not mention them, and the minutes had not been posted as of Nov. 6, 2026 (see the Update Nov. 6 above). Staff had also offered an alternative (Alternative 6) that would have let the City Manager approve the Geosyntec amendment instead, for ratification on Nov. 17. Which option, if any, the Council chose had not been reported as of Nov. 5 (on Nov. 6, Patch reported that the Council approved the Geo-Logic Associates amendment; see above). The outcomes of Consent Item A (the draft Oct. 20 minutes) and Consent Item E (reconfirming the landslide emergency work and ratifying the AAA Oil well-generator fueling amendment) had not been reported either.
• Buyouts: the City's presentation at the meeting says an orientation meeting for the pre-selected Round 1 properties was held Oct. 29, 2026, and lists "Begin executing buyouts in groups over next few months" as a next step, after "Appropriate awarded & obligated grant amounts (recommended council action)" (slide 20). No purchases under the buyout program had been reported as of Nov. 5, 2026 (City buyout page, whose newest update is still Oct. 14; City weekly report, Nov. 5). Round 3 (about 8 more homes, $19 million) remains waitlisted. Update Nov. 6: the City's video update says the Council approved the grant funding on Nov. 4 (see above), and no purchases had been reported as of Nov. 6, 2026 (City buyout page, re-checked Nov. 6; its newest update is still Oct. 14).
• Wells: the presentation's well slide lists "8 Online" and "DDW-5 re-drill pending" among entries it marks as updated Nov. 3 (slide 2). The City's Nov. 5 weekly report says ten of the original 11 wells remain in service and gives no operating count (see the Nov. 5 entry).
• SCE: the presentation lists the Oct. 30 meeting between City staff and SCE only by its purpose, to "discuss City's request to adjust threshold for reinstating power in PBCA and begin engineering & design for City's Landslide Mitigation projects" (slide 18). As of Nov. 5, 2026, neither the City's written reports nor SCE's pages had reported the outcome of that meeting (see the Oct. 28 SCE entry). The same slide repeats the staff report's power figures: 84 homes re-energized in the Beach Club and Seaview, plus 2 KCLAD well meters, and 7 homes remaining.
• Movement and the next study: the weekly report's summary of the staff update repeats the early-October survey figures: 1.05 inches per week in still-moving areas, up 7.6% since August, and about 30% slower than a year earlier (pp. 4–5; see the Oct. 28 survey entry). The presentation says Geosyntec's hydrology and hydraulics study of the landslide complex is "Scheduled to present to the City Council on November 17, 2026" (slide 30).
• Packet: on Nov. 2 the City Clerk added late correspondence to the agenda, including the three contract amendments the staff report had marked "forthcoming": Geo-Logic Associates Amendment No. 1 (Attachment A), LSA Associates Amendment No. 1 (Attachment B) and Geosyntec Amendment No. 1 (Attachment P) (Late Correspondence (20261102), pp. 6, 21, 26). Some figures in the posted texts differ from the staff report. The LSA amendment gives the added amount as $150,940 and the new contract sum as $501,940 in one place and $501,590 in another, while the staff report gives $150,937 and $501,937. The GLA amendment's recital gives a new contract sum of $3,125,000, but its Section 2.1 sets the total Contract Sum at $2,900,000, the amount of the increase. We use the staff report's figures. The same packet also posted an updated Attachment D for Consent Item E, the AAA Oil amendment, which sets that contract sum at $400,000, as the agenda had described (p. 2).

The meeting video is posted (the landslide item begins at 1:20:41); the minutes, which will record the votes, had not been posted as of Nov. 6, 2026.

Sources: City Manager's Weekly Administrative Report No. 26-44 (Nov. 5, 2026), a large PDF (its inside page headers are misdated "October 28, 2026"); meeting highlights on pp. 4–5, tentative agendas on pp. 51–52 · Nov. 4, 2026 meeting video and index (2 h 55 min; no minutes posted as of Nov. 6, 2026) · RPVtv City Council Update, Nov. 4, 2026 (City video, posted Nov. 5), grant funding at about 0:45–1:08, emergency extension at about 0:07–0:22, PV Drive South restrictions at about 1:16 · City Public Works presentation, Nov. 4, 2026 Council meeting, Item 3 (PDF), slides 2, 18, 20, 30 and 33–34 · Late Correspondence (20261102), Nov. 4, 2026 Council agenda (PDF), a scanned file, pp. 2, 6, 21 and 26 · staff report for the Nov. 4, 2026 Council meeting, a large PDF, pp. 1–2, 52–53 and 59 · Nov. 4, 2026 Council agenda · City buyout page (checked Nov. 5 and Nov. 6, 2026). Coverage: Patch (Nov. 6). Next check: the Nov. 4 minutes (the official record of the votes, including on the grants and the two amendments) and adopted resolutions, and the City's Nov. 12 weekly report; the next landslide emergency renewal is tentatively Dec. 1.

Measure RS: 75.14% yes in unofficial results as of Nov. 6; counting continues until certification

Added Nov. 5, 2026. Update Nov. 6: in the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's unofficial results as of Nov. 6, 2026, 4:37 p.m. (its fifth post-Election Night update), Measure RS had 75.14% yes (12,060 votes) and 24.86% no (3,989). Its Nov. 5, 4:34 p.m. count (the third update) had 75.03% yes (11,327) and 24.97% no (3,769). As a general tax it needs a simple majority ("Majority of votes cast," per the Registrar). The results are not final. On Nov. 6 the Registrar estimated about 414,000 ballots still to be counted countywide (375,000 vote-by-mail, 34,000 conditional voter registration and 5,000 provisional; it does not break that estimate out by city), and vote-by-mail ballots postmarked by Election Day count if they arrive by Nov. 10. The Registrar will keep posting updates (daily through Nov. 13, then on Nov. 17, 19, 25 and 27) and is scheduled to certify the election on Nov. 27, 2026. The City Council's certification of the Measure RS and Council results is on its tentative agenda for Dec. 15, 2026 (Weekly Report No. 26-44, p. 52). According to the City Attorney's impartial analysis, if the measure is approved the new rate takes effect 10 days after the Council certifies the results.

Measure RS asked voters whether to raise the City's transient occupancy (hotel) tax from 10% to 13%, a general tax the City projects at about $2.2 million a year (background in the July 21 entry). Voters also cast ballots for three City Council seats (six qualified candidates; no incumbent ran). Unofficial results are on the L.A. County Registrar's results page; they can change until the results are certified. PVLandslide.com does not endorse candidates or take positions on ballot measures.

Sources: L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, unofficial results (as of Nov. 6, 2026, 4:37 p.m.) ("MEASURE RS" and "Member of the City Council") · Registrar news release, Nov. 6, 2026 (PDF), p. 1 (outstanding-ballot estimate) · Registrar news release, Nov. 5, 2026 (PDF), p. 1 · Registrar's post-election update schedule (PDF) · City Manager's Weekly Administrative Report No. 26-44 (Nov. 5, 2026), a large PDF, pp. 5 (where to find results) and 52 (tentative agendas) · City Attorney's Impartial Analysis (PDF) · City Measure RS page (checked Nov. 5, 2026; it now links to the Registrar's live results and posts no counts of its own) · City election page (candidates). Next check: the Registrar's later updates and its certification, scheduled for Nov. 27; the Council's certification is tentatively Dec. 15.

Early-October survey: average movement up 7.6% since August, to 1.05 inches per week; City points to wave erosion at the landslide's toe

Added Oct. 29, 2026. In its Oct. 28 landslide update, the City says that in its early-October survey (covering Sept. 3 to Oct. 6, 2026, according to its staff report), areas still moving inside the active landslide boundary averaged 1.05 inches per week, up 7.6% since the early-August survey. The City's geologist attributes the increase largely to erosion at the landslide's toe from wave action, caused by extreme southerly swells during an unusually active hurricane season in the southeast Pacific. Despite the acceleration and an above-average rainy season, the City says the complex is moving about 30% slower than a year earlier.

• Portuguese Bend Landslide: 0.88 in/week (up an average of 14.8% from September to October, after slowing an average of 3.6% from August to September). The staff report for the Nov. 4 Council meeting says this slide is now 91% slower than just before the City's deep dewatering wells began in September 2024 (p. 15); the City's Sept. 9 update had said 92%.
• Abalone Cove Landslide: 1.36 in/week (up an average of 16.7% from September to October, after slowing an average of 9.5% from August to September). Staff say its fastest-moving area is now the toe, at about 1.5 in/week (point AB04), and attribute that to toe erosion from wave action in September (p. 15).
• Klondike Canyon Landslide: generally still no measurable movement. Per the staff report, the City Geologist reads the horizontal readings at point KC30 as generally below or near instrument precision, with inconsistent directions. The staff report also finds no measurable movement along Burma Road or at GPS points outside the mapped complex, including Abalone Shoreline Park, the Island View tract and the Seaview Tract (pp. 15–16).
• Other Altamira points (staff report only): points above or outside the historical Abalone Cove and Portuguese Bend boundaries averaged about 1.22 in/week, after slowing 7.2% from Aug. 4 to Sept. 3 and speeding up 8.4% from Sept. 3 to Oct. 6. Staff say these points are about 87% slower than when the City's well program began in mid-September 2024 (pp. 7, 16). The City's Oct. 28 update does not mention this group.
• Two survey periods: the staff report splits the complex-wide 7.6% into a 3.9% slowdown from Aug. 4 to Sept. 3 and an 11.9% speedup from Sept. 3 to Oct. 6, 2026 (pp. 14–15). The City has given the August-to-September changes only as percentages; it has not published per-area rates in inches per week for the September survey.
• Timing and cause, in more detail (staff report): from early September to about Oct. 11, four tropical systems (Hurricanes Marie, Odalys, Polo and Rachel) sent strong southerly swells, while sea level was already up to a foot higher than normal because of El Niño; a Kelvin wave temporarily raised it another 6 to 12+ inches between Oct. 3 and Oct. 15. The City Geologist observed significant loss of the "new" coastline that had formed at the toe of the Portuguese Bend Landslide. Staff place the acceleration between the Sept. 3 and Oct. 6 surveys (pp. 6–7, 11). The City's Oct. 28 update itself gives no dates and does not mention tides.
• Longer view (staff report Table 1, p. 14): in July 2024, the peak month, average movement was 11.02 in/week for Portuguese Bend, 10.25 for Abalone Cove, 9.17 for the upper Altamira points and 4.34 for Klondike Canyon. For October 2022 the table gives 0.17, 0.13, 0.08 and 0.06.
• Winterization and rain: the City says its winterization measures are complete and held up well in recent rainfall, and that no pump trucks were needed on Palos Verdes Drive South, where drainage improvements were added. The City Manager's Oct. 28 weekly report says that in the week of Oct. 18, when about 0.5 inch of rain fell, the PV Drive South drainage "performed as intended," with no pumping and no road closures (p. 20). At Rolling Hills Fire Station 56, the 2025–26 season brought 15.60 inches of rain (about 114% of average), including 0.97 inch on Sept. 5–8, 2026 from the remnants of Tropical Storm Marie, and the 2026–27 season brought 0.61 inch through Oct. 25 (staff report pp. 6, 10).
• Survey files now posted: on Oct. 29 the City's Landslide Surveys and Mapping page listed the October products: a displacement-rate contour map for the Oct. 6 survey (Cotton, Shires and Associates, dated Oct. 22), the surveyor's October 2026 GPS survey report and the GPS dataset through October 2026. We could not establish when they were posted. The surveyor's report (Addendum No. 17, updated Oct. 18) covers Sept. 3 to Oct. 6, 2026, with an average survey date of Oct. 6; moving points averaged 0.4 ft a month (maximum 0.5 ft), and their velocity changed by +14% on average (range −7% to +52%). Its written summary counts 55 of the 102 monitoring points as moving and 47 as not. The point-by-point flags in the City's spreadsheet mark 53 as moved and 49 as not, and the City's contour map draws movement arrows for the same 53. The City's posted documents do not explain the difference (see Maps & Data).

Update Nov. 5: the City Manager's Nov. 5 weekly report (No. 26-44, pp. 4–5) repeats these early-October figures in its summary of the staff update at the Nov. 4 Council meeting. As of Nov. 5, 2026, no newer survey had been posted on the City's Landslide Surveys and Mapping page, the three October files were unchanged, and the City still had not published per-area rates for the September survey (see the Nov. 4 entry).

Sources: City 2026 Community Updates Archive (Oct. 28, 2026 entry; first posted on the City's Land Movement Updates page) · staff report for the Nov. 4, 2026 Council meeting (Regular Business Item 3), a large PDF; movement on pp. 6–7 and 14–16, rainfall on p. 10, cause on p. 11 · City Landslide Surveys and Mapping page (checked Oct. 29, 2026), with the October 2026 GPS survey report (Addendum No. 17, pp. 25–26), the Oct. 6 contour map and the GPS dataset (Excel) · City Manager's Weekly Administrative Report No. 26-43 (Oct. 28, 2026), a large PDF, pp. 6–7 and 20. Coverage: LAist (Oct. 29), which reported the increase in general terms, citing the City's Oct. 28 statement, and reported that winterization "fared well" in recent rain, per the City; it does not give the City's exact figures, and its timing for the waves does not match the City's survey period, which ended Oct. 6. Next check: the November survey and the City's next summary.

SCE letter: no change to its under-1-inch-per-week threshold for restoring power; City and SCE were to meet Oct. 30

Added Oct. 29, 2026. The staff report for the Nov. 4 Council meeting, posted with the agenda, includes a letter SCE sent the City Manager on Oct. 13, 2026 (Attachment U) and the City's latest utility status:

• SCE's letter: SCE wrote that land movement in the Portuguese Bend area "continues to exceed the one inch/week safety threshold" and that, with the added risk of the forecast El Niño, conditions do not allow safe re-energization. It said it will keep its threshold of less than 1 inch per week, and it declined the City's request to commit to engineering and design before that threshold is met. SCE's letter confirmed an in-person meeting with the City on Oct. 30, which its chief operating officer was to join.
• What the letter does not say: it does not say which measurements SCE used, and it predates the City's Oct. 28 figures (see the survey entry above). The City's Sept. 9 update described SCE's condition as a sustained reduction in movement near SCE's electrical infrastructure to less than 1 inch per week; that is not the same measure as the City's area-wide averages.
• Power status (staff report, p. 25): SCE has re-energized 84 homes in the Portuguese Bend Beach Club and Seaview, plus 2 KCLAD dewatering-well meters; 7 homes in those neighborhoods remain without power. There is "no indication when power will be restored in the PBCA." The City Manager wrote SCE's president and CEO in August asking to meet in person to reconsider the PBCA threshold. SCE has told the City it is unable to consider the City's requests to adjust that threshold or to begin engineering and designing a circuit for the City's landslide mitigation projects, and staff planned to raise both requests at the Oct. 30 meeting. The report does not mention the Sept. 14 meeting that the Sept. 15 staff report had described as tentatively scheduled (see the September 15 entry).
• Gas (same page): the report has no new SoCalGas updates. Seaview and Beach Club homes that have completed the required steps may ask SoCalGas to restore service; there is no indication when gas will return in the PBCA. SoCalGas's own PV Land Movement page still showed its Oct. 2, 2025 update as the newest when we checked Oct. 29, 2026.
• ACLAD wells: the same report says SCE has given preliminary approval to connect ACLAD wells 12 and 25 to its grid (p. 20).
• Coming up: the Council's tentative agenda for Nov. 17 still lists "Update from SCE regarding outages and improvements to infrastructure" (Weekly Report No. 26-43, p. 49); the title does not say whether it will cover the PBCA.

Update Nov. 1: as of Nov. 1, 2026, neither the City nor SCE had reported the outcome of the Oct. 30 meeting. The City's Land Movement Updates page and its 2026 Community Updates Archive still showed the Oct. 28 entry as their newest, the City's news flash and Alert Center had no new landslide or SCE item, and the City Manager's next weekly report (No. 26-44) had not been posted. SCE's Rancho Palos Verdes page and its updates page still showed the August 2026 Rolling Hills tension-relief notice as their newest, and Edison's newsroom releases dated Oct. 20 to 30 had no Rancho Palos Verdes item. SoCalGas's page still showed its Oct. 2, 2025 update as the newest.

Update Nov. 5: as of Nov. 5, 2026, neither the City's written updates nor SCE's pages had reported the outcome of the Oct. 30 meeting. The City Manager's Nov. 5 weekly report (No. 26-44) does not mention it, and the City's presentation at the Nov. 4 Council meeting lists the meeting only by its purpose: to discuss the City's request to adjust the threshold for restoring power in the PBCA and to begin engineering and design for its landslide mitigation projects (slide 18). The City's Land Movement Updates page and its 2026 Community Updates Archive still showed the Oct. 28 entry as their newest, and the City's news flash and Alert Center had no new landslide or SCE item. SCE's Rancho Palos Verdes and updates pages still showed the August 2026 notice as their newest, Edison's newsroom had no release after Oct. 30, and SoCalGas's page still showed its Oct. 2, 2025 update as the newest. Slide 18 also repeats the staff report's power figures (84 homes re-energized, plus 2 KCLAD well meters; 7 homes remaining) and says the remaining 7 "will be re-energized upon successful completion of electrical inspection or completion of NEM-PTO (solar installations)." The Council's tentative agenda for Nov. 17 still lists "Update from SCE regarding outages and improvements to infrastructure" (No. 26-44, p. 51); the title does not say whether it will cover the PBCA. For the rest of the Nov. 4 meeting, see the Nov. 4 entry.

Sources: staff report for the Nov. 4, 2026 Council meeting, a large PDF; utilities on p. 25, ACLAD on p. 20, SCE's Oct. 13, 2026 letter as Attachment U (p. U-1, the last page) · City 2026 Community Updates Archive (Sept. 9, 2026 entry) · Weekly Report No. 26-43 (Oct. 28, 2026), p. 49 · SoCalGas PV Land Movement page (checked Oct. 29, Nov. 1 and Nov. 5, 2026) · City Land Movement Updates page, 2026 Community Updates Archive, news flash, Alert Center and Archive Center, SCE's two pages and Edison's newsroom (all checked Nov. 1 and Nov. 5, 2026) · City Manager's Weekly Administrative Report No. 26-44 (Nov. 5, 2026), a large PDF, p. 51 · City Public Works presentation, Nov. 4, 2026 Council meeting, Item 3 (PDF), slide 18. Next check: the Nov. 17 SCE item and the City's Nov. 12 weekly report.

Nov. 4 Council agenda: staff recommend accepting $55,964,462 in federal grants, two design and permitting contract amendments, and three 60-day extensions

Added Oct. 29, 2026. The City has posted the agenda for the Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026 Council meeting: 7 p.m. in McTaggart Hall at Hesse Park (29301 Hawthorne Blvd.) and on Zoom. (The 6 p.m. closed session has two items, existing litigation and City Manager labor negotiations; the agenda does not describe either as landslide-related.) The landslide update is Regular Business Item 3, and the City's Oct. 28 update links its staff report. The Council has not yet acted on any of it. What staff recommend, and what the report says:

• Accepting $55,964,462 in federal grants (pp. 1–2, 32, 37): $54,024,898 in FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program money for buyout Rounds 1 and 2, covering 27 properties ($42,000,000 to acquire 22 in Round 1 plus $1,246,655 for subrecipient management costs; $10,145,417 to acquire 5 in Round 2 plus $632,826), and the $1,939,564 Pre-Disaster Mitigation grant for permanent well power. The City's Oct. 28 update rounds these to "over $54 million" and "over $1.9 million."
• Buyouts (pp. 36–37): Round 1's 22 properties are 16 red-tagged and 6 yellow-tagged; Round 2's 5 are 1 red-tagged and 4 yellow-tagged. Because the grants pay by reimbursement, the City will buy homes a few at a time, expected to start in the coming months; acquiring all 27 may take a few years, and demolition will be done in clusters. Waitlisted applicants keep their rank, and the $19 million Round 3 application (about 8 homes) remains waitlisted. The City's Oct. 28 update calls formal acceptance of the money a "next step" for the program. No completed purchase had been reported as of Oct. 29, 2026; the City's buyout page still showed its Oct. 14 update as the newest.
• Well power (p. 38): FEMA approved the $1,939,564 on Sept. 25, 2026 for permanent electrical infrastructure to connect five existing dewatering wells to the utility grid, replacing temporary generators. The project totals $2,586,085, including a $646,521 non-federal match already in the City's FY 2026–27 capital budget (the City's Oct. 14 announcement gave the match as $646,500). It must be finished by Sept. 29, 2027 unless extended.
• Design and permitting: two contract amendments (pp. 1–2): the City's Oct. 28 update calls them "two contracts totaling a combined over $3 million." Both amend existing agreements. Amendment No. 1 with Geo-Logic Associates (GLA) would add $2,900,000 (from $225,000 to $3,125,000, with no added contingency, and extend the term from June 30, 2027 to Dec. 31, 2027) for engineering design and construction documents for the BRIC 2022 Phase 2 and BRIC 2025 remediation projects. Amendment No. 1 with LSA Associates would add $150,937 (from $351,000 to $501,937, term to Dec. 31, 2027) for environmental permitting for the same two projects. Both would be paid from new appropriations from the City's capital (CIP) fund; staff are working with the State Water Resources Control Board to determine whether the GLA costs are eligible for reimbursement from the $5 million state allocation instead.
• A change from Oct. 20 (pp. 39–40, 59): for Oct. 20, staff had said they were not recommending GLA for this work "per direction from CalOES and FEMA," because GLA helped develop the grant scopes, and proposed a $6 million Geosyntec amendment instead, which the Council deferred (below). For Nov. 4, staff recommend GLA. They acknowledge that GLA's prior involvement presents a potential conflict under federal procurement requirements, say they would continue to pursue FEMA reimbursement, and note that GLA's $2.9 million fee is lower than the about $4 million City cost of the Geosyntec proposal. Alternative 6 would instead let the City Manager approve the Geosyntec amendment, for ratification on Nov. 17.
• Grant statuses (Table 7, p. 38): BRIC 2022 ($23,329,850), "Awarded / Pending Re-Scope Approval"; the HMGP 2025 remediation grant ($36,539,371 of a $48,719,185 total), "Waitlisted"; BRIC 2025 ($20,000,000), "Submitted to FEMA"; the FY 2026 Pre-Disaster Mitigation grants for ACLAD and KCLAD ($1,145,144 each), "In FEMA Review (Pending Award)"; PROTECT ($3,000,000), "Submitted to DOT"; buyout Rounds 1 and 2, "Awarded/Obligated." The table totals $176,144,569, including a $36,900,079 non-federal match, and staff say the City lacks the budget or reserves for all of the match (p. 8). Table 6 (p. 34) separately describes an HMGP DR-4856-CA construction grant as advancing through FEMA review. The City's Grant Tracker, checked Oct. 29, now lists buyout Rounds 1 and 2 as "Awarded" (previously "Selected" and "Selected from waitlist") and has new rows for the PROTECT application ($3 million, "Applied") and the $5 million state allocation ("Awarded"). It still lists BRIC 22 as "Selected" and the $48.7 million HMGP remediation application as "Applied," and it has no row for the well-power award.
• Three 60-day extensions (pp. 2, 52–53): staff recommend extending the ban on unicycles, bicycles, motorcycles and other one-, two- and three-wheeled vehicles on Palos Verdes Drive South within the complex (about 2 miles, per the City); continuing the landslide local emergency (Resolution No. 2023-47 of Oct. 3, 2023); and continuing the separate de-energization emergency for the Portuguese Bend Community Association, Portuguese Bend Beach Club and Seaview neighborhoods (Resolutions 2024-52 and 2024-57). The report says all three are in effect until Nov. 14, 2026 unless extended, and that if extended the emergencies would run through Jan. 3, 2027. It gives the next renewal as Dec. 1 in its section on the road ban and as Dec. 15 in its two emergency sections; the tentative agendas list the landslide emergency extensions on Dec. 1 (Weekly Report No. 26-43, p. 49).
• Why staff want the road ban kept (pp. 8, 50, 52): six survey points near PV Drive South averaged 0.68 inch per week in October 2026, about 93% below the July 2024 peak (10.07) but more than four times the rate before October 2022 (0.16). City staff and consultants describe the road segment in the complex as "continuing to deform and is not yet stable."
• Consent Item E: reconfirm, by a four-fifths vote, the need to continue the landslide emergency work, and ratify Amendment No. 1 to AAA Oil's contract for fueling the well generators, adding $306,500 (from $93,500 to $400,000) and moving its end date from Oct. 29, 2026 to June 30, 2027, with an option for one more year. Consent Item A is approval of the draft Oct. 20 minutes (below).
• Other emergencies: the City's separate local El Niño emergency (Resolution No. 2026-78, adopted Oct. 6) is not up for renewal on Nov. 4; staff say the Council will be asked to renew it on Dec. 1 (p. 32). A Governor's proclamation dated Sept. 21, 2026 ended a list of state emergencies, including "Rancho Palos Verdes Land Movement," proclaimed Sept. 3, 2024. The staff report, which describes it as the Governor's state of emergency for the utility shutoffs in the complex, says the City can continue to seek relaxed permitting and procurement processes as long as the Council extends the local emergency (p. 53). That termination is separate from the statewide El Niño emergency the Governor declared in September (see the September 23 entry).
• Wells (pp. 7, 17–18): the report says that "as of October 2026," 7 of the 9 remaining City wells are operating. Four sheared and were redrilled in the past two months, and two of those (DDW 6, redrilled Oct. 2, and DDW 8, redrilled Oct. 16) are offline for low production while staff investigate; the well table is dated Oct. 19. The City's Oct. 21 weekly report had said eight of nine were operating. The report gives 14.0 million gallons pumped in September 2026 (18.7 million in August); the staff report for the Oct. 20 meeting had given 32.7 million for September. We found no City explanation for either difference. ACLAD has 14 operating wells and pumped 5.1 million gallons in August and 4.4 million in September. For KCLAD the report says 2 wells are operating and 3 are offline for low production, though its conclusion says 3 are operating; KCLAD pumped 6.0 million gallons in August and 6.4 million in September (pp. 20, 24, 58).
• Remediation schedule (pp. 35–36): bid-ready plans for the HMGP-funded construction project, which GLA is designing, are expected by Dec. 31, 2026. Staff target federal environmental review and state and federal permits by the same date, easements by March 31, 2027, and bid-ready plans for the other two projects by about March 31, 2027, so construction can start around July 1, 2027; the internal target for finishing all three is Dec. 31, 2028. A CEQA Notice of Exemption was filed Sept. 28, 2026. The report also notes an informational meeting on Nov. 5 for owners who received the City's Oct. 23 easement letters (p. 36).
• Trails (pp. 16–17): the report says about 12.5 miles of trails remain closed in the Portuguese Bend, Filiorum and Abalone Cove reserves, along with the open space around the Archery Range and three beaches (Abalone Cove Beach, Sacred Cove Beach and the beach below the Archery Club). The City's Land Movement Updates page, checked Oct. 29, still says about 8 miles of trails were closed in the Portuguese Bend, Abalone Cove, Filiorum and Forrestal reserves.
• Sewer (pp. 25–26): camera inspections found heavy damage to an 8-inch line of the City's Abalone Cove sewer along Ginger Root near Narcissa Drive; replacement of the heavily damaged sections was scheduled to finish by the end of October, and sections that are deformed or sagging will be monitored. The report lists no current activity on the Seaview sewer, where it says there has been no detectable land movement for many months, or on the private Beach Club sewer or the PV Drive South trunk lines. (We did not check the L.A. County Sanitation Districts' own pages.)
• Costs (pp. 3, 8, 58): projected landslide costs from 2022 through June 30, 2027 total $74.8 million. Of the $13.8 million FY 2026–27 revised landslide budget, about $7.2 million (52%) had been spent or committed as of Oct. 26. ACLAD and KCLAD begin repaying their City loans in December 2026, with payments of $156,954 and $186,932.
• Gaps in the packet: the GLA, LSA and Geosyntec amendments (Attachments A, B and P) are marked "forthcoming," and Attachment Q, listed as GLA's proposal, contains LSA's permitting proposal. Update Nov. 1: when checked Nov. 1, 2026, the agenda and this staff report were unchanged; Attachments A, B and P were still marked "forthcoming" and had not been posted separately, and the agenda listed no late correspondence or revised staff report. No City document posted since Oct. 28 resolves the Dec. 1 versus Dec. 15 renewal dates noted above. Update Nov. 5: on Nov. 2 the City Clerk added late correspondence to the agenda, including the three contract amendments this staff report had marked "forthcoming": Geo-Logic Associates Amendment No. 1 (Attachment A), LSA Associates Amendment No. 1 (Attachment B) and Geosyntec Amendment No. 1 (Attachment P) (Late Correspondence (20261102), pp. 6, 21, 26). Some figures in the posted texts differ from the staff report. The LSA amendment gives the added amount as $150,940 and the new contract sum as $501,940 in one place and $501,590 in another, while the staff report gives $150,937 and $501,937. The GLA amendment's recital gives a new contract sum of $3,125,000, but its Section 2.1 sets the total Contract Sum at $2,900,000, the amount of the increase. We use the staff report's figures.

Oct. 20 outcome: the draft minutes of the Oct. 20 meeting, posted as Consent Item A, record that the Consent Calendar, except Item G, passed 5-0, which approved the Oct. 6 minutes. Item G was pulled for public comment. On a 5-0 vote the Council then reconfirmed, by a four-fifths vote, the need to continue the landslide emergency work and deferred Recommendations 3 through 6, the $6,000,000 Geosyntec amendment and its appropriations, "to a date uncertain." Also 5-0: on the storm-drain item, the Council directed staff to keep working with the L.A. County Flood Control District on watersheds within the landslide complex; on the Public Safety Division update, it directed staff to determine how to strengthen the City's messaging and enforcement of the "prohibition of two or more axle vehicles" on PV Drive South through the complex. The minutes do not explain that prohibition. Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi presented a check for his $5 million state budget allocation. The minutes remain a draft until the Council approves them.

Update Nov. 5: for what the City has reported about the meeting's outcome, see the Nov. 4 entry: the 60-day renewals were reported in the City's Nov. 5 weekly report; the City's written reports had not given the outcome of the grant acceptance or the two amendments as of Nov. 5, nor of Consent Items A (these draft Oct. 20 minutes) and E. The City's Nov. 5 tentative agendas still list the next landslide emergency extension on Dec. 1 (No. 26-44, pp. 51–52), so the staff report's Dec. 1 versus Dec. 15 difference remains unresolved.

Update Nov. 6: in the City's RPVtv video update posted Nov. 5, 2026, City Manager Ara Mihranian says the Council approved nearly $56 million in federal grant funding on Nov. 4: more than $54 million for the voluntary buyout of 27 red- and yellow-tagged properties and $1.9 million for permanent power to the deep dewatering wells. Patch reported on Nov. 6 that the vote on the grants was 5-0 and that the Council also approved the Geo-Logic Associates (+$2.9 million) and LSA Associates (+$150,937) amendments; the City's video update and its Nov. 5 weekly report do not mention a vote count or the amendments, and the minutes had not been posted as of Nov. 6, 2026. As of Nov. 6, the City's written reports still had not given the outcomes of Consent Items A and E. See the Nov. 4 entry.

Sources: Nov. 4, 2026 Council agenda · staff report for Regular Business Item 3, a large PDF (page numbers above) · Consent Item E staff report · draft minutes of the Oct. 20, 2026 meeting (Consent Item A; pp. 2, 4–7) · staff report for the Oct. 20 Consent Item G (pp. 6, 10) · City 2026 Community Updates Archive (Oct. 28, 2026 entry) · City Grant Tracker (checked Oct. 29, 2026) · City buyout page (checked Oct. 29, 2026) · Governor's proclamation terminating states of emergency (Sept. 21, 2026) · Weekly Report No. 26-43 (Oct. 28, 2026), p. 49 · Late Correspondence (20261102), Nov. 4, 2026 Council agenda (PDF), a scanned file, pp. 6, 21 and 26 · City Manager's Weekly Administrative Report No. 26-44 (Nov. 5, 2026), a large PDF, pp. 5 and 51–52 · RPVtv City Council Update, Nov. 4, 2026 (City video, posted Nov. 5). Coverage: Patch (Nov. 6). Next check: the Nov. 4 minutes.

About 589 million gallons pumped; PV Drive South drainage needed no pumping in rain the week of Oct. 18

Added Oct. 29, 2026. From the City Manager's weekly report of Oct. 28 (No. 26-43), which also reprints the City's Oct. 28 landslide update (pp. 6–7; see the entries above):

• Dewatering: about 589 million gallons (1,806 acre-feet) extracted since September 2024, up from about 585 million a week earlier. Nine of the original 11 City wells remain in service; this report gives no count of operating wells. City documents differ on that count: eight of nine (weekly report, Oct. 21) and seven of nine, with two redrilled wells offline for low production (staff report for the Nov. 4 meeting; its well table is dated Oct. 19). See the Nov. 4 agenda entry.
• Winterization and PV Drive South drainage: the City says it has completed emergency winterization throughout the complex, plus passive drainage improvements in flood-prone spots along PV Drive South near the former Wayfarers Chapel and Klondike Canyon. In the week of Oct. 18, when about 0.5 inch of rain fell, the drainage "performed as intended," with no pumping and no road closures (p. 20). The staff report for the Nov. 4 meeting adds that battery-solar generators for the Seaview graben pumps were scheduled for Oct. 30, that ACLAD's winterization work is due by mid-November and KCLAD's by the end of December, and that all planned City, ACLAD and KCLAD work is to be finished by the end of December 2026 (pp. 7–8, 30–32, 58).
• Coming up (tentative agendas dated Oct. 28, pp. 49–51): on Nov. 17, an SCE update on outages and infrastructure improvements and a report on the landslide's hydrology and hydraulics; on Dec. 1, an extension of the El Niño emergency resolution, "Award of PWA for PVDS Storm Drain Repairs" (the title does not say where), a public hearing on an appeal of a Director's Determination under RPVMC 15.20 (the Landslide Regulations), an urgency ordinance on RPVMC Chapter 17.72 (coastal permits; the title does not say whether it concerns the landslide area), and extending the landslide emergency resolutions with a progress report; on Jan. 19, 2027, another El Niño extension. "Affirm continued landslide emergency contracting" is listed at every regular meeting through Feb. 16, 2027. No buyout purchase, demolition or GHAD item is listed (Meetings).

Update Nov. 1: as of Nov. 1, 2026, Weekly Report No. 26-44 had not been posted; the newest report in the City's Archive Center was still this Oct. 28 report. No City document posted since Oct. 28 gives a new count of operating wells or says whether the well that the Oct. 21 report described as pending pump installation and energization has been energized. On Oct. 30 the City posted the agenda for a Nov. 6 special meeting of its Infrastructure Management Advisory Committee: an infrastructure tour, for information only, whose itinerary includes a drive, with no stop, along PV Drive South past the former Wayfarers Chapel (ponding, drainage and pavement rehabilitation), a walking stop labeled "Beach Club DDWs" (deep dewatering well operation and winterization) and a walking stop at the Abalone Cove sewer system (see Meetings).

Update Nov. 5: the City Manager's Nov. 5 weekly report (No. 26-44, p. 24) gives about 590 million gallons (1,813 acre-feet) extracted and says "Ten of the original 11 DDWs installed by the City remain in service" and "One DDW will start redrill this week." It gives no count of operating wells and does not explain the change from nine. The same report says the Nov. 6 IMAC special meeting is still scheduled (p. 25), and its tentative agendas now run through March 16, 2027 and add the election certification on Dec. 15 (pp. 51–54). See the Nov. 5 entry.

Sources: City Manager's Weekly Administrative Report No. 26-43 (Oct. 28, 2026), a large PDF; the City's landslide update on pp. 6–7, landslide items on p. 20, tentative agendas on pp. 49–51 · Weekly Report No. 26-42 (Oct. 21, 2026), p. 20 · staff report for the Nov. 4, 2026 Council meeting, a large PDF, pp. 7–8, 17–18, 30–32 and 58 · City Manager's Weekly Administrative Report No. 26-44 (Nov. 5, 2026), a large PDF, pp. 24–25 and 51–54. Next check: the City's Nov. 12 weekly report.

About 585 million gallons pumped and eight of nine wells running; Oct. 20 Council minutes not yet posted

Added Oct. 22, 2026. From the City Manager's weekly report of Oct. 21 (No. 26-42) and the City's records of the Oct. 20 Council meeting:

• Dewatering: about 585 million gallons (1,794 acre-feet) extracted since September 2024, up from about 581 million a week earlier. Nine of the original 11 deep wells remain in service, and eight are now operating, up from seven. The report says the remaining well "has been redrilled and pending pump installation and energization by the end of this week." It does not say which well returned. It is the third weekly report in a row to expect the sheared wells back within the week.
• Winterization: unchanged from the Oct. 14 report. All originally planned measures were completed in the first week of October, and staff and the City's geologists are evaluating additional measures.
• Oct. 20 Council meeting: as of Oct. 22 the City had posted the meeting video but not minutes. The City's video index shows the landslide emergency item (Consent Item G, which included the proposed $6 million amendment to Geosyntec's design contract) was pulled from the consent calendar for public comment and heard separately; we had not found an official record of its outcome or of the vote approving the Oct. 6 minutes. The weekly report's meeting recap (headed "October 6" but describing the Oct. 20 meeting) says the Council "approved contracts to complete the inspections by March 2027 and perform urgent repairs identified by the assessment" for the citywide storm-drain program, whose on-call repair agreements exclude the landslide complex. It gives no vote.
• State funding: at the Oct. 20 meeting Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi presented a ceremonial check for his $5 million state budget allocation "for landslide mitigation efforts." The City says the money will help its remediation work "to prevent future re-acceleration"; the Assemblymember's office has said it helps offset about $15 million of the City's FY 2025–26 landslide costs (our Sept. 22 entry).
• Coming up: the City's tentative agendas (dated Oct. 21) list extending the landslide emergency resolutions, with a progress report, on Nov. 4 and again on Dec. 1; an SCE update on outages and infrastructure and a report on the landslide's hydrology and hydraulics on Nov. 17; and "Affirm continued landslide emergency contracting" at every regular meeting through Feb. 16, 2027. No buyout purchase or demolition item is listed (Meetings).

Update Oct. 29: the draft minutes of the Oct. 20 meeting, posted with the Nov. 4 agenda, record that the Council approved the Oct. 6 minutes, 5-0, and on Item G reconfirmed the landslide emergency work while deferring the $6 million Geosyntec amendment and its appropriations "to a date uncertain" (see the Nov. 4 agenda entry). On wells, the City's Oct. 28 weekly report says nine of the original 11 remain in service but gives no operating count, while the staff report for the Nov. 4 meeting says seven of nine were operating "as of October 2026," with two redrilled wells offline for low production (see the Oct. 28 weekly-report entry). The City has now published per-area rates from its early-October survey; for the September survey it has given only percentage changes (see the Oct. 28 survey entry). Update Nov. 1: as of Nov. 1, 2026, no City document posted since Oct. 28 said which well this report meant or whether it had been energized, and the City's next weekly report (No. 26-44) had not been posted. The staff report for the Nov. 4 meeting (well table dated Oct. 19) lists two redrilled wells, DDW 6 and DDW 8, as offline for low production while staff investigate. Update Nov. 5: the City Manager's Nov. 5 weekly report (No. 26-44, p. 24) says ten of the original 11 wells remain in service and that one will start redrill that week, but gives no count of operating wells. The Nov. 5 report does not name the wells or say whether the well the Oct. 21 report described as pending pump installation and energization has been energized. The City's presentation at the Nov. 4 Council meeting lists "8 Online" and "DDW-5 re-drill pending" (slide 2, marked as updated Nov. 3). See the Nov. 5 entry.

Sources: City Manager's Weekly Administrative Report No. 26-42 (Oct. 21, 2026), a large PDF; meeting recap and state funding on pp. 4–5, landslide items on p. 20, tentative agendas on pp. 48–50 · Oct. 20, 2026 meeting video and index · Oct. 20 agenda. Next check: a City report that all nine remaining wells are operating, and per-area rates for the September survey (the City has given only percentage changes).

Cal Water: a "boil water" post circulating in Rancho Palos Verdes is fake

Cal Water posted an alert saying a post telling Rancho Palos Verdes residents to boil their water did not come from Cal Water: "This post was NOT generated by Cal Water, your water provider, and there is NO boil water advisory in effect for any part of Rancho Palos Verdes." For real water-service notices, check Cal Water's own site, and report leaks at 855-RPV-LEAK (855-778-5325).

Source: Cal Water alert (posted Oct. 15, 2026; no longer on Cal Water's site when we checked Oct. 23, 2026; Cal Water's Alert Center listed no alert specific to Rancho Palos Verdes when we checked Oct. 29, 2026). More on water service in the Resident Guide.

City says FEMA has formally awarded over $54 million for buyout Rounds 1 and 2; purchases expected to start "in the coming months"

On October 14 the City announced that it "has been formally awarded over $54 million" in FEMA grants for the first two rounds of its Voluntary Property Buyout Program: 22 homes in Round 1 and 5 in Round 2, 27 pre-selected properties in all. The City says the awards "follow a federal regulatory review period" and allow it to begin the process of acquiring those properties. The History & Background section of the City's buyout page dates the award itself to September: "In September 2026, the City was formally awarded over $54 million in HMGP grants." That fits FEMA's Sept. 29 release, whose amount and number of properties also match, which answers the question left open in the September 29 entry: the City says the money is for Rounds 1 and 2.

• Not the earlier selection amounts. The City was selected for $42 million for Round 1 (October 2024) and $10.16 million for Round 2 (February 2026), $52.16 million together. The award is "over $54 million" for both rounds; the City has not explained the difference. Update Oct. 29: the staff report for the Nov. 4, 2026 Council meeting gives the award as $54,024,898: $42,000,000 to acquire Round 1's 22 properties plus $1,246,655 for subrecipient management costs, and $10,145,417 to acquire Round 2's five plus $632,826. Staff recommend that the Council formally accept the money on Nov. 4 (see the Nov. 4 agenda entry).
• What happens next, according to the City: "Because federal grants operate on a reimbursement basis, the City will execute buyouts in groups of a few homes at a time, expected to start in the coming months. It will likely take a few years to acquire and demolish improvements, including residences, for all 27 properties." The program consultant, Black & Veatch, will contact selected Round 1 and Round 2 owners directly to finalize appraisal information and forms, coordinate escrow and manage closing. The City had not reported any completed purchase as of October 14. Update Oct. 29: none had been reported as of Oct. 29, 2026 (City buyout page, whose newest update is still Oct. 14; staff report for the Nov. 4 meeting, p. 37). Update Nov. 5: none had been reported as of Nov. 5, 2026 (City buyout page, re-checked Nov. 5 and unchanged; City weekly report No. 26-44). The City's presentation at the Nov. 4 Council meeting says an orientation meeting for the pre-selected Round 1 properties was held Oct. 29, 2026 (slide 20). As of Nov. 5, the City's written reports had not said whether the Council formally accepted the grants on Nov. 4 (see the Nov. 4 entry). Update Nov. 6: in the City's RPVtv video update posted Nov. 5, City Manager Ara Mihranian says the Council approved nearly $56 million in federal grant funding on Nov. 4, including more than $54 million for the voluntary buyout of 27 red- and yellow-tagged properties. No purchases had been reported as of Nov. 6, 2026 (City buyout page, re-checked Nov. 6 and unchanged).
• Program terms (City): properties are bought at pre-disaster fair market value. FEMA covers 75% of eligible acquisition, appraisal, title and demolition costs; the 25% match is deducted from the seller's proceeds at closing. After the structures are demolished, the land is permanently deed-restricted as open space.
• Waitlist and Round 3: waitlisted applicants keep their priority rank, and if a selected owner withdraws, the next property advances by risk priority. The City's $19 million Round 3 application (about 8 more homes) "remains waitlisted." The City received 85 applications in fall 2024.
• Which homes: the announcement does not list the properties, and the City has not published their addresses. Our new acquisition tracker will list each property once its purchase becomes public in an official record, with the date and source.
• Red and yellow tags: the City's Oct. 14 announcement says homes were prioritized for the program by safety risk factors such as red or yellow tags, loss of utility service and closeness to active land movement, but it gives no breakdown. An earlier City breakdown, in the staff report for the June 16, 2026 Council meeting (p. 30), put Round 1's 22 homes at 15 red-tagged and 7 yellow-tagged and Round 2's five at 1 red-tagged and 4 yellow-tagged. Update Oct. 29: the staff report for the Nov. 4, 2026 Council meeting (pp. 36–37) puts Round 1 at 16 red-tagged and 6 yellow-tagged and Round 2 at 1 red-tagged and 4 yellow-tagged. Tag status can change over time.

The same announcement included other funding news:

• Permanent power for the dewatering wells: over $1.9 million awarded. The City says it "has been formally awarded over $1.9 million in FEMA Pre-Disaster Mitigation funding to install infrastructure for a permanent power source" for its deep dewatering wells at the toe of the Portuguese Bend Landslide. The City says it was originally selected for this money as landslide remediation funding, through Congressionally Directed Spending secured by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein in 2022, and that the project's scope was later revised to avoid overlap with other federal grants. The grant requires a $646,500 local match. The City spends about $53,000 a month to rent and fuel the generators that run the wells. The announcement does not say when permanent power will be in place; an award is not a payment.
• PV Drive South: a $3 million PROTECT application. The City says that "last week" it applied for a $3 million Federal Highway Administration PROTECT grant for the Palos Verdes Drive South Reconstruction Project; the federal deadline was Oct. 9. "If awarded, the grant would cover design costs" for the project, which "would reconstruct and realign a two-mile stretch" of the road; no local match would be required for the design work. The City estimates the overall project at $28 million including construction and is looking for other funding. According to the draft minutes of its Oct. 6 meeting, the Council had authorized an application for up to $10 million (see the October 13 entry). The federal funding notice says awards are expected the week of December 7, 2026.
• The announcement also recaps the $5 million in state funding announced in September.

Sources: City 2026 Community Updates Archive (Oct. 14, 2026 entry: the full announcement, including the well-power and PROTECT items; first posted on the City's Land Movement Updates page) · City press release (PDF, Oct. 14, 2026) (buyout award only) · City Voluntary Property Buyout Program page ("Update - October 14, 2026," a shorter version) · City Manager's Weekly Administrative Report No. 26-41 (Oct. 14, 2026), a large PDF, pp. 5–7 · FEMA Region 9 news release R9-NR-26-36 (Sept. 29, 2026). Coverage: Patch (Oct. 15) · Daily Breeze (Oct. 16) (its headline says $56 million; the article itself gives the City's figure of more than $54 million) · Patch (Oct. 21), on the well-power grant. As of Oct. 23 the City's Grant Tracker had not been updated to show the awards. Update Oct. 29: when checked Oct. 29, 2026, it listed Rounds 1 and 2 as "Awarded." Tag breakdown and award amounts: staff report for the Nov. 4, 2026 Council meeting, a large PDF, pp. 36–37. For owners: the Resident Guide's buyout section. Next check: the City's buyout page and weekly reports, for the first completed purchases.

About 581 million gallons pumped; winterization and PV Drive South drainage complete; two wells still being redrilled

The City Manager's October 14 weekly report (No. 26-41) updates the landslide-area work described a week earlier:

• Dewatering: about 581 million gallons (1,783 acre-feet) extracted since September 2024. Nine of the original 11 deep wells remain in service and seven are operating. The other two "have recently sheared and are in the process of being redrilled," and the report says they "will be back online by the end of this week." It is the third City document in a row to predict their return within the week, after the Oct. 7 weekly report ("this week") and the staff report for the Oct. 20 Council meeting ("will be brought back into service this week"; its well table, dated Oct. 6, lists both as "Redrill in Progress"). As of Oct. 19, no City document had said they were back in service (Update Oct. 22: the City's Oct. 21 report says eight of nine wells are operating; see Oct. 21). That staff report also says the nine wells pumped about 18.7 million gallons in August 2026 and 32.7 million in September. Update Oct. 29: the staff report for the Nov. 4 Council meeting gives 14.0 million gallons for September (and the same 18.7 million for August); we found no City explanation for the difference (see the Nov. 4 agenda entry).
• Winterization: finished. "All originally planned winterization measures were completed in the first week of October." Staff, with the City geologists, "are evaluating additional winterization measures in anticipation of a strong rainy season."
• PV Drive South drainage: complete. The drainage improvements near the former Wayfarers Chapel and near Klondike Canyon "have also been completed," the report says; the Oct. 7 report had said they were "scheduled to be completed by next week." The City says the improvements "will reduce the City's reliance on pumping operations and reduce the risk of roadway closures during rain events." The City also reports that Wayfarers Chapel "has also completed erosion control and other protective measures on its hillside adjacent to Palos Verdes Drive South."
• High surf from Tropical Storm Rachel: when the remnants of Tropical Storm Rachel brought high surf and tides to the Southern California coast around Oct. 9–12, city spokesperson Megan Barnes told the Daily Breeze, "We performed storm prep and had crews out monitoring for any issues," and the paper reported that the City had no weather-related issues.
• Council tentative agendas (dated Oct. 14): the landslide items are unchanged from the Oct. 7 report: extending the landslide emergency resolutions, plus a progress report on landslide projects, on Nov. 4; "Update from SCE regarding outages and improvements to infrastructure" and a report on the landslide's hydrology and hydraulics on Nov. 17; an extension of the El Niño emergency resolution and an appeal hearing under RPVMC 15.20 (the Landslide Regulations) on Dec. 1; and another El Niño extension on Jan. 19, 2027. "Affirm continued landslide emergency contracting" is listed at every regular meeting through Jan. 19, 2027. No item on forming a new abatement district (GHAD) is listed.
• Power and movement data: the report has no news on restoring power in the Portuguese Bend Community Association, and we found no City or SCE announcement as of Oct. 14. The City still has not published per-area movement rates from the September survey; the newest remain the early-August figures (0.99 in/week average for areas still moving; Portuguese Bend 0.81, Abalone Cove 1.29), published Sept. 9 (see the September 9 entry). No October survey report had been posted as of Oct. 14. Update Oct. 29: the City's Oct. 28 update gives per-area rates from the early-October survey; for the September survey it has given only percentage changes. The October survey files are now posted; we could not establish when (see the Oct. 28 survey entry). On power, see the Oct. 28 SCE entry.

The same report's buyout and funding news is in the entry above, and its preview of the Oct. 20 Council meeting is in the next entry.

Sources: City Manager's Weekly Administrative Report No. 26-41 (Oct. 14, 2026), a large PDF; landslide items on p. 20, Oct. 20 agenda preview on p. 4, tentative agendas on pp. 45–47 · staff report for Oct. 20 Consent Item G (well table and monthly pumping on p. 6) · City 2026 Community Updates Archive (Sept. 9, 2026 entry). Coverage: Daily Breeze (Oct. 12, updated Oct. 13), on the storm. Next check: a City report that all nine remaining wells are operating (the staff report for the Nov. 4 meeting lists two redrilled wells, DDW 6 and DDW 8, as offline for low production while staff investigate), and per-area rates for the September survey (the City has published October per-area rates, but for September only percentage changes). Update Nov. 5: the City's Nov. 5 weekly report (No. 26-44, p. 24) says ten of the original 11 wells remain in service and that one will start redrill that week, but gives no count of operating wells; as of Nov. 5, 2026 the City had posted no survey newer than the early-October one and no September per-area rates. See the Nov. 5 entry.

Oct. 20 agenda: a $6 million landslide design amendment and a citywide storm-drain update; draft minutes record the Oct. 6 votes as 5-0

On October 13 the City posted the agenda for the October 20, 2026 regular Council meeting (7 p.m., McTaggart Hall at Hesse Park, and on Zoom), along with draft minutes of the Oct. 6 meeting. The landslide-related items:

• Consent Item A: the Oct. 6 minutes. The draft minutes (every page is marked "DRAFT") record that the Council adopted the El Niño proclamation as Resolution No. 2026-78, 5-0 (moved by Councilmember Bradley, seconded by Councilmember Ferraro). The Consent Calendar also passed 5-0. It included Item K, which reconfirmed the landslide emergency by a four-fifths vote and approved Amendment No. 1 to Geo-Logic Associates' contract ($164,654, for a total of $659,339 including contingency, through June 30, 2027), and Item H, which authorized staff to apply for up to $10 million in PROTECT Planning Grant funding, provided they found no more advantageous competing grant before the Oct. 9 deadline. (The City says it applied for $3 million; see the October 14 buyout entry.) The minutes remain a draft until the Council approves them.
• Consent Item G: landslide emergency work and a $6 million design amendment. The item again asks the Council to reconfirm the need to continue emergency work and contracting on the landslide. It also asks the Council to approve Amendment No. 1 to Geosyntec Consultants' contract, adding $6,000,000 (from $1,100,200 to $7,100,200) to design two parts of the City's remediation project, named for their grants: BRIC 2022 Phase 2 and BRIC 2025. Staff would withhold execution of the amendment until Cal OES and FEMA agree that the procurement meets federal requirements. Staff estimate that about $2.0 million would be reimbursed by two pending FY 2026 Pre-Disaster Mitigation grants and that about $4.0 million would come from the City's capital (CIP) fund; the $1.8 million design for the BRIC 2025 project has no grant funding identified, so staff count all of it as City cost (pp. 7, 17). Staff say they are not recommending Geo-Logic Associates for this work "per direction from CalOES and FEMA," citing a federal rule that excludes firms that develop a project's specifications or scope from competing for the resulting contract; Geo-Logic helped develop the scopes for these grant applications. As a planning-level check, the report compares the $6 million fee with the two projects' estimated construction cost of about $61.6 million: about 9.7% overall (5.7% for BRIC 2025 and 14.0% for BRIC 2022 Phase 2), against the roughly 5% to 8% it says is typical for larger conventional civil infrastructure projects. Geosyntec told staff its subconsultants were proposing fees "significantly higher" than on comparable projects, citing concerns about potential litigation and the technical uncertainty of designing permanent infrastructure in an actively moving landslide; staff say these factors likely contributed, particularly for BRIC 2022 Phase 2, and that they will review the proposed hours and costs as the designs are defined (pp. 15–16). Staff describe the $6 million as a ceiling, not a commitment to spend it all: rather than the usual two-phase approval, they recommend approving the full amount now and authorizing design tasks in writing, in stages, after staff review, because the compressed schedule leaves no time for a first phase and a second Council approval (pp. 13–14). They also estimate that a new consultant solicitation would take about three months and would not let the City keep its construction schedule (pp. 10–11).
• The City's targets (same report): final design of the HMGP-funded project by Dec. 31, 2026; the other two designs bid-ready by March 31, 2027 (Geosyntec's own proposed schedule runs to the end of May 2027); construction starting by July 1, 2027; and all three remediation construction projects finished by Dec. 31, 2028.
• Cost to date (same report): the total estimated cost of the landslide complex "from 2022 through June 30, 2027" is "close to approximately $75 million ($74.8 million)," funded through multiple sources, including the City's CIP and General funds, Metro funds, ARPA, gas tax and federal grants. Draft year-end figures put FY 2025-26 landslide spending at about $12.9 million, against a revised budget of $17.9 million. The City's Measure RS page says the City "will have spent approximately $75,000,000 of its own funds over the last three-and-a-half years by June 2027."
• Grant status (same report): in June 2026 ACLAD and KCLAD adopted resolutions assigning their FY 2026 Pre-Disaster Mitigation grants to the City, and they agreed in writing that the money be used to design part of the remediation project. The report says the grants "were previously reported for $1,145,144 each" and, "based on FEMA's official website," now lists a federal share of about $1.12 million each. A City letter to Cal OES dated Oct. 7, attached to the report, lists those grants as "applied for and are pending allocation." The same letter describes the BRIC 2022 grant as awarded in 2023 and says the City has submitted a scope-of-work change and a time-extension request to FEMA; the City's Grant Tracker still lists that grant as "Selected," and no payment has been reported.
• Regular Business Item 1: storm drains. This is the "storm drain assessment" the City Manager mentioned on Oct. 6 (see the October 6 entry). The staff report describes a citywide camera inspection ("condition assessment") of the City's roughly 25 miles of storm drains, not a fee or tax assessment. About 70% (17.5 miles) has been inspected, and completion is now expected in March 2027. The proposed on-call repair agreements "explicitly exclude the Portuguese Bend Landslide Complex geographical area," which is covered by separate emergency landslide on-call agreements awarded June 16, 2026. Staff are also preparing a contract of about $600,000, for award by December 2026, to clean, rehabilitate or replace nine storm-drain reaches on PV Drive South between Hawthorne Blvd. and Terranea Way, west of the landslide complex. L.A. County Flood Control District staff are to report on their storm preparations for County-owned drains.
• Regular Business Item 3: Council goals. The first-quarter update on the FY 2026-27 Council goals rates Goal 2-1, the Portuguese Bend Landslide, "At Risk, Ongoing." It targets final plans for the remediation project in March 2027, estimates full completion in December 2028, and says advancing the long-term mitigation project "remains highly dependent on securing grant funding."

Sources: Oct. 20, 2026 Council agenda, with the draft minutes of the Oct. 6, 2026 meeting (Consent Item A; Consent Calendar vote on p. 4, Items H and K on pp. 5–6, Item 3 on p. 8) and staff reports for Consent Item G (landslide emergency and Geosyntec amendment) (cost figures on p. 3, target schedule on p. 10, fee comparison on pp. 15–16, the Oct. 7 letter in Attachment D), Regular Business Item 1 (storm drains) and Regular Business Item 3 (Council goals) · Weekly Report No. 26-41 (Oct. 14, 2026), p. 4. Coverage: Patch (Oct. 16), a preview of the Geosyntec amendment. Update Oct. 22: the City has posted the meeting video but not minutes; see Oct. 21. Update Oct. 29: the draft Oct. 20 minutes record that the Council reconfirmed the landslide emergency work, 5-0, and deferred the Geosyntec amendment and its appropriations to a date uncertain; for Nov. 4, staff instead recommend a $2.9 million amendment with Geo-Logic Associates (see the Nov. 4 agenda entry). Next check: the Nov. 4 outcome (minutes or video) on the Geo-Logic Associates and LSA amendments, or on Alternative 6, which would instead let the City Manager approve a Geosyntec amendment for ratification on Nov. 17. Update Nov. 5: the City's written reports had not given those outcomes as of Nov. 5, 2026; see the Nov. 4 entry. Update Nov. 6: Patch reported on Nov. 6 that the Council's vote on the federal grants was 5-0 and that it also approved the Geo-Logic Associates (+$2.9 million) and LSA Associates (+$150,937) amendments; the City's RPVtv video update (posted Nov. 5) and its Nov. 5 weekly report do not mention a vote count or the amendments, and the minutes had not been posted as of Nov. 6, 2026.

Two sheared wells still being re-drilled; PV Drive South drainage now "scheduled to be completed by next week"

The City Manager's October 7 weekly report (No. 26-40) updates the landslide-area work described a week earlier:

• Dewatering: about 577 million gallons (1,769 acre-feet) extracted since September 2024. Nine of the original 11 deep wells remain in service. The two that recently sheared "are in the process of being re-drilled and will be brought back into service this week." The Sept. 30 report had said they would be back by the following week. At the time, no City report had said they were back in service (see the Oct. 14 and Oct. 21 entries).
• PV Drive South drainage near Klondike Canyon and the Wayfarers Chapel property: now "scheduled to be completed by next week." City documents have described this work differently from week to week: complete (Sept. 23 weekly report), expected within two weeks (Sept. 30 weekly report), "substantially complete" (staff report for the Oct. 6 Council meeting), and now due by next week.
• Winterization: unchanged. "As of last week, all areas originally planned for winterization have been substantially completed ahead of schedule."
• Council tentative agendas (dated Oct. 7): one new item, not in the Sept. 30 report: on November 17, 2026, "Update from SCE regarding outages and improvements to infrastructure" (15 minutes). The title does not say whether it covers the Portuguese Bend area. The tentative agendas still list "Affirm continued landslide emergency contracting" at every regular meeting from Oct. 20, 2026 through Jan. 19, 2027; extending the landslide emergency resolutions, plus a progress report on landslide projects, on Nov. 4; a report on the landslide's hydrology and hydraulics on Nov. 17; and, on Dec. 1, an appeal hearing under RPVMC 15.20 (the Landslide Regulations) and an extension of the El Niño emergency resolution, which is also listed for Jan. 19, 2027.

The same report's highlights of the October 6 Council meeting are in the next entry.

Update Oct. 14: the City's Oct. 14 weekly report (No. 26-41) says the PV Drive South drainage improvements "have also been completed" and again says the two wells being redrilled will be back online "by the end of this week"; see the October 14 entry.

Source: City Manager's Weekly Administrative Report No. 26-40 (Oct. 7, 2026), a large PDF; landslide items on p. 21, Oct. 6 Council highlights on p. 4, tentative agendas on pp. 41–43.

Council proclaims a local El Niño emergency (Resolution No. 2026-78); draft minutes show both landslide consent items approved 5-0

In its highlights of the October 6 Council meeting, the City Manager's October 7 weekly report (No. 26-40) says: "The Council proclaimed a local state of emergency ahead of the forecasted El Niño season to help bolster the City's storm preparation and response efforts." This was Regular Business Item 3 (what the proclamation does is described in the Sept. 30 entry). The report does not give the vote or the resolution number.

• Consent Items K and H: not in the Oct. 7 report. Item K asked the Council to reconfirm, by a four-fifths vote, the need to continue emergency work on the Greater Portuguese Bend-Ancient Altamira Landslide Emergency Project and to approve a $164,654 amendment to Geo-Logic Associates' design contract (total $659,339, through June 30, 2027). Item H asked for conditional authority to apply for up to $10 million in federal PROTECT Planning Grant funding for the Palos Verdes Drive South Reconstruction Project. The report's meeting highlights mention neither item; they say, "For all City Council actions from the meeting, watch the video at rpvca.gov/agendas." The meeting video is posted. As of the evening of October 8, the City had not posted minutes (see below). Update Oct. 14: the draft minutes record both items approved 5-0 (see below).
• Extensions: the Council's tentative agendas list "Extend the resolution proclaiming an emergency related to the forecasted Super El Nino" for December 1, 2026 and January 19, 2027.

Added Oct. 8: The Daily Breeze (Michael Hixon, Oct. 7) reported that the Council voted unanimously for the El Niño proclamation; it did not give a vote count. The paper also reported what City officials said at the meeting:

• How long it lasts: the proclamation stays in effect for 60 days, and Deputy City Manager Catherine Jun said it will come back to the Council on Dec. 1 if the threat continues. That matches the Dec. 1 extension item above. The Item 3 staff report also says the proclamation will remain in effect for 60 days, and that to keep it in effect after that the Council must renew it at a noticed meeting before it expires. The draft resolution says the emergency continues until the Council ends it, with a review at least every 60 days as state law requires.
• Who pays: Jun said the City is paying for its storm preparations from existing budget appropriations, and that the proclamation does not make El Niño-related costs automatically eligible for reimbursement from any level of government. The Item 3 staff report says the same: the costs are covered by existing appropriations in the FY 2026-27 operating budget, and the proclamation does not, by itself, make them eligible for State or federal reimbursement.
• What it does and does not do: City Attorney William Wynder called the declaration "in part symbolic." He said it does not automatically qualify the City for federal funding, but it does let the director of emergency services carry out his duties and may let some purchases go through an expedited process. City Manager Ara Mihranian said it lets the City bypass some permitting "hoops and constraints" and relax some environmental and procurement requirements. The staff report and draft resolution describe the City's added authority mainly as emergency purchasing and contracting. The draft resolution also says the City is likely to need mutual aid, provides that the Disaster Council, the Director and the City's emergency services organizations act under the powers set by state law and City rules during the emergency, and invokes the City's legal immunities. Apart from a finding that the resolution itself is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), neither document says the proclamation relaxes permitting or environmental rules. Added Oct. 14: the staff report for an Oct. 20 storm-drain item says "City Council Resolution No. 2026-78 provides streamlined and reduced procurement and permitting efforts." The adopted resolution's text refers to "emergency purchasing and contracting authorities established by applicable law," and its recitals mention expedited procurement; it does not mention permitting.
• Storm drains: Mihranian said staff are tentatively scheduled to bring the storm drain assessment report to the Council on Oct. 20, and that it may identify storm drains needing urgent attention. The Oct. 20 tentative agenda lists "Status update on storm drain assessment and award of PWAs for storm drain projects" (Weekly Report No. 26-40, p. 41). Update Oct. 14: the final Oct. 20 agenda lists it as Regular Business Item 1, an update on the City's Storm Drain Asset Management Program. The staff report describes a citywide camera inspection ("condition assessment") of City-owned storm drains, not a fee or tax, and says the proposed on-call repair agreements exclude the Portuguese Bend Landslide Complex, which has separate emergency agreements (see the October 13 entry).
• The forecast: Jun cited a 90% chance that El Niño becomes a very strong event this fall and winter and a 75% chance that it reaches historic strength. The Daily Breeze said she was referring to the forecast NOAA's Climate Prediction Center posted Sept. 10. NOAA's Sept. 10 diagnostic discussion gives those figures (a greater than 90% chance of a very strong event; a 75% chance of a historic event in October–December 2026); the City's staff report and draft resolution date the figures Sept. 17. NOAA's Oct. 8 update says a strong-to-very-strong El Niño is likely through January–March 2027 (greater than an 83% chance) and puts the chance of a historic-strength event at 83% for October–December.

As of the evening of Oct. 8, the City still had not posted minutes for the Oct. 6 meeting, and we found no City document giving the vote, the resolution number or the outcomes of Items H and K.

Update Oct. 14: the City posted draft minutes of the Oct. 6 meeting on Oct. 13, with the Oct. 20 agenda, for approval on Oct. 20 (Consent Item A). They record that the Council adopted the El Niño proclamation as Resolution No. 2026-78, 5-0 (moved by Councilmember Bradley, seconded by Councilmember Ferraro). The Consent Calendar also passed 5-0. Under Item K the Council reconfirmed, by a four-fifths vote, the need to continue the landslide emergency work and approved the Geo-Logic Associates amendment ($164,654; total $659,339 including contingency; term extended to June 30, 2027). Under Item H it authorized staff to apply for up to $10 million in PROTECT Planning Grant funding, provided they found no more advantageous competing grant before the Oct. 9 deadline. The minutes remain a draft until the Council approves them. See the October 13 entry.

Update Nov. 1: the draft minutes of the Oct. 20 meeting, posted with the Nov. 4 agenda, record that the Council approved the Oct. 6 minutes, 5-0, on its consent calendar. The Oct. 20 minutes are themselves a draft until the Council approves them (Nov. 4 Consent Item A; see the Nov. 4 agenda entry).

Sources: City Manager's Weekly Administrative Report No. 26-40 (Oct. 7, 2026) (meeting highlights on p. 4, tentative agendas on pp. 41–43) · Oct. 6, 2026 Council agenda, with the Item 3 staff report and draft resolution · meeting video · draft minutes of the Oct. 6, 2026 meeting (Consent Calendar vote on p. 4, Items H and K on pp. 5–6, Item 3 on p. 8) · staff report for the Oct. 20 storm-drain item · NOAA Climate Prediction Center ENSO diagnostic discussions of Sept. 10 and Oct. 8, 2026. Coverage: Daily Breeze (Oct. 7). Next check: the Council's action on the draft Oct. 20 minutes (Nov. 4 Consent Item A), which record the approval of the Oct. 6 minutes. Update Nov. 5: as of Nov. 5, 2026, the City's written reports did not give the outcome of Consent Item A, and no minutes of the Nov. 4 meeting had been posted; see the Nov. 4 entry.

Winterization substantially complete ahead of schedule; September survey shows another ~8% slowing

The City Manager's September 30 weekly report (No. 26-39) closes out the season's main storm-prep push, and the surveyor's September report adds another data point of deceleration:

• Canyon winterization: done, early. As of this week, all areas originally planned for winterization have been substantially completed ahead of schedule (the contractor began August 20). One revision from last week's report: the drainage improvements on PV Drive South near Klondike Canyon and the Wayfarers Chapel property — described as complete on September 23 — are now expected to be finished within the next two weeks. They're meant to cut the City's dependence on pumping flooded areas and reduce the risk of road closures in storms. Added Oct. 6: the staff report for the Oct. 6 Council meeting (Item K, below) describes these drainage improvements as "substantially complete." Some of that report's data are older than the Sept. 30 weekly report's: its dewatering table is dated Sept. 21.
• Dewatering: 573 million gallons (1,760 acre-feet) extracted since September 2024. Nine of the original 11 deep wells remain in service; the two recently sheared wells were being re-drilled and expected back in service by early October.
• October 6 Council agenda: proclaiming a local state of emergency ahead of the forecasted El Niño storm season — following the State's and County's own proclamations. The City notes such proclamations expand coordination and pre-positioning but don't guarantee financial assistance. Added Oct. 6: the final agenda lists the proclamation as Regular Business Item 3, "Consider adopting a resolution proclaiming the existence of a local emergency in anticipation of the 2026-2027 El Niño Event." The staff report says the proclamation would let the City "more quickly identify, purchase, stage, and pre-position" equipment, personnel and other resources before or during major storms, but would not by itself make the City's costs eligible for State or federal reimbursement. Under the draft resolution, the Council must review the need for the emergency at least once every 60 days. The draft resolution cites NOAA's Sept. 17 outlook: a greater than 90% chance of a very strong El Niño this fall and winter, and a 75% chance it reaches historic strength between October and December 2026 (Patch reported the same figures on Oct. 2). Added Oct. 8: NOAA's own diagnostic discussion with these figures is dated Sept. 10; NOAA's Oct. 8 update is summarized in the Oct. 6 Council entry. Consent Calendar Item K separately asked the Council to reconfirm, by a four-fifths vote, the need to continue emergency work on the Greater Portuguese Bend-Ancient Altamira Landslide Emergency Project, and to approve Amendment No. 1 to Geo-Logic Associates' design contract for the Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project: $164,654 in added services, mainly design work to bring permanent SCE power to the project's dewatering system, bringing the contract total to $659,339 including contingency and extending its term to June 30, 2027. Added Oct. 7: a third landslide-related item, Consent Calendar Item H, was titled "Consider authorizing the submittal of an application to the Federal Highway Administration PROTECT Competitive Grant Program for the Palos Verdes Drive South Reconstruction Project (CIP 8301)." Staff asked for authority to apply for up to $10 million in PROTECT Planning Grant funding. That money may pay for planning, environmental review, preliminary engineering, design and other preconstruction work, with no local match, toward realigning and reconstructing about two miles of PV Drive South within the landslide complex. The authorization was conditional: staff would apply only if, before the federal deadline of October 9, 2026, they found no other available competing grant that would be more advantageous. The staff report says the grant "would not fund construction," and construction funding has not been identified. The City's capital plan sheet for the project says "Construction is not anticipated to begin until the Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation project is constructed and land movement has stabilized." The federal funding notice says the U.S. Department of Transportation expects to announce awards the week of December 7, 2026. Update Oct. 7: the City's Oct. 7 weekly report says the Council proclaimed the local El Niño emergency (Item 3). It does not report the outcome of Items H or K, and as of the evening of Oct. 7 the City had not posted minutes (see the Oct. 6 Council entry). Update Oct. 14: the draft minutes of the Oct. 6 meeting record Items H and K approved 5-0, and the City says it applied for a $3 million PROTECT grant (see the October 13 and October 14 entries).
• September GPS survey (surveyed Sept. 3; report revised Sept. 15): of 102 monitoring points, 49 showed no statistically detectable movement; among the 53 points above the 0.04-ft confidence level, movement averaged 0.3 feet per month (maximum 0.5 ft), with average velocity down about 8% from the August survey (individual points ranged −30% to +12%). The City has not yet published per-area inches-per-week rates from this cycle — the official per-area figures remain the early-August summary (0.99 / 0.81 / 1.29 in/week). Update Oct. 29: the City's Oct. 28 update gives per-area rates from the early-October survey; for this September survey it has given only percentage changes (see the Oct. 28 entry).

Sources: City Manager's Weekly Administrative Report No. 26-39 (Sept. 30, 2026) (landslide items on p. 24) · McGee Surveying September 2026 GPS survey report (summary on p. 25) · Oct. 6, 2026 Council agenda, with staff reports for Item 3 (El Niño), Item K (emergency work and Geo-Logic Associates amendment) and Item H (PROTECT planning-grant application) · FHWA PROTECT funding notice (FHWA-PROT-26-001) · Weekly Report No. 26-40 (Oct. 7, 2026). Coverage: Patch (Oct. 2) on the proposed proclamation · Spectrum News (Sept. 29) on winter preparations, with the City Manager saying the City's measures have produced "deceleration of the land movement."

FEMA announces more than $54 million to buy out 27 residential properties; City had not yet confirmed a formal award or when purchases can start

In a September 29 news release from its Oakland regional office (No. R9-NR-26-36), FEMA "announced the approval of more than $226 million in post-disaster funding" for California, Hawai'i, Nevada and the Northern Mariana Islands. In the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) part of the package, which FEMA says it "is also awarding," the release lists more than $54 million "to the City of Rancho Palos Verdes for the acquisition and demolition of 27 residential properties critically affected by the Greater Portuguese Bend Landslide in Rancho Palos Verdes." FEMA introduces that list as "projects reimbursed through Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funding announced today." The release does not use the word "obligated," and it gives no timeline. What is and isn't known:

• It matches the 27 homes the City selected in Rounds 1 and 2 (22 in Round 1 and 5 in Round 2). FEMA's release does not mention rounds. Its "more than $54 million" is also somewhat more than the $52.16 million the City has given for those two grants ($42 million plus $10.16 million). Neither FEMA nor the City has explained the difference, or said whether either figure is FEMA's 75% share or the total project cost.
• Round 3 is not in it. The release does not mention the City's $19 million Round 3 application (about 8 more homes), and a count of 27 leaves no room for them. The City last said, on July 9, that it was still awaiting word on Round 3.
• We found no City statement on the release as of the evening of October 6. The City's buyout page still showed the July 9 update, which says the City "cannot proceed with purchasing homes until it is officially awarded both grants by FEMA" and has no timeline. We found nothing on the FEMA release on the City's Land Movement Updates page, in its news feed (through Oct. 2) or in the City Manager's Sept. 30 weekly report, and the Oct. 6 Council agenda had no buyout item. Whether this release is the formal award the City has been waiting for, and when purchases can begin, has not been announced. No homes had been purchased as of the City's latest update. Update Oct. 8: still no City statement as of the evening of Oct. 8. The buyout page still shows the July 9 update, and we found nothing on the release in the City's news feed (through Oct. 8) or in the City Manager's Oct. 7 weekly report (No. 26-40), whose tentative Council agendas through Jan. 19, 2027 list no buyout item.
• How the money moves: FEMA says it "coordinates directly with the state on all hazard mitigation projects"; Cal OES works with the City on the buyout grants. The City has said that once the grants are awarded, FEMA's money will arrive as reimbursements after sales close, likely about three properties at a time, which may take a few years.

According to the City's July 9 update, if it has not contacted you about an appraisal, your property is not among the 27 it selected for Rounds 1 and 2. Next check: the City's buyout page, for the first reported purchase; the City confirmed the award on Oct. 14 (see below), and no completed purchase had been reported as of Nov. 1, 2026.

Update, Oct. 14: the City announced that it "has been formally awarded over $54 million" in FEMA grants for buyout Rounds 1 and 2 (22 and 5 homes), which answers this entry's main open question. It says purchases, in groups of a few homes at a time, are expected to start in the coming months, and that the $19 million Round 3 application "remains waitlisted." See the October 14 entry.

Sources: FEMA Region 9 news release R9-NR-26-36 (Sept. 29, 2026) · City 2026 Community Updates Archive (July 9, 2026 buyout update, which was still the newest update on the City's buyout page when checked Oct. 8, 2026) · City Voluntary Property Buyout Program page (Oct. 14, 2026 update) · City Manager's Weekly Administrative Report No. 26-39 (Sept. 30, 2026) · No. 26-40 (Oct. 7, 2026). Coverage: Maui Now (Oct. 5), which reported the package.

Winter prep report: most canyon work done, wells being redrilled, and a statewide El Niño emergency

The City Manager's weekly report gives a detailed status update ahead of what forecasters warn could be the strongest El Niño on record:

• Winterization is mostly finished. Canyon work began August 20. Work in the Seaview, Klondike Canyon, and Kelvin Canyon areas is complete. Crews are still working in Upper Altamira Canyon and Portuguese Canyon, with completion expected in early October. The drainage improvements on PV Drive South, near the former Wayfarers Chapel site and near Klondike Canyon, are also complete. They should reduce the need for pumping and the risk of road closures during storms. Wayfarers Chapel's own erosion-control work on its hillside is due in early October.
• Dewatering: about 570 million gallons (1,746 acre-feet) pumped since September 2024. Nine of the City's original 11 deep wells remain in service and seven are running. Two were sheared by the moving ground and are offline until they're redrilled. The first of three planned redrills was finished this week and that well is pumping again; the second is underway and the third follows.
• A statewide El Niño emergency. Earlier this week Governor Newsom declared a state of emergency. It directs state agencies to get ready ahead of the storms and to help local governments reduce flood, landslide, and coastal risk. City staff are looking at how RPV can use it for winter preparation and how it might affect landslide remediation.

Source: City Manager's Weekly Administrative Report No. 26-38 (Sept. 23, 2026), a large PDF; the landslide items are on pages 4–6 and 20–21. (The City's rotating DocumentCenter link now serves the most recent weekly report.) Update Nov. 1: the next survey, covering Sept. 3 to Oct. 6, showed movement speeding up; the City's geologist attributes that largely to wave erosion at the landslide's toe, and the City's Oct. 28 update says the winterization measures held up well during recent rainfall (see the Oct. 28 survey entry). The staff report for the Nov. 4 meeting gives 0.61 inch of rain for the 2026–27 season through Oct. 25, at Rolling Hills Fire Station 56. Next check: the first survey after significant rain will show whether these measures hold.

$5 million in state funding for the City's landslide work, described two ways

On Monday, September 21, Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi announced that Rancho Palos Verdes has been awarded $5 million in state funding. In the release, Mayor Paul Seo thanked Muratsuchi for adding the allocation to the state budget bill. The two public descriptions of what the money is for should be read together:

• Muratsuchi's release: the money is to support the City's ongoing landslide mitigation work at the Greater Portuguese Bend-Ancient Altamira Landslide Complex and to help prepare for El Niño winter storms. It "will help Rancho Palos Verdes offset approximately $15 million in expenditures accrued during FY 2025-26."
• The City: Patch reported, citing city spokesperson Megan Barnes, that the $5 million is for future landslide remediation efforts.

For scale (the $15 million, $75 million and 566 million-gallon figures are from city spokesperson Megan Barnes, via Patch):

• About $15 million spent on the landslide in FY 2025–26, roughly 38% of the City's ~$40 million annual General Fund operating budget.
• About $75 million projected in total City response spending from October 2022 through June 2027. An earlier City figure, about $72.1 million of the City's own funds by June 2027, is on the City's "Maintaining Rancho Palos Verdes Roads & Emergency Readiness" page (see the July 21 entry). Correction (Oct. 14, 2026): this entry previously said the $72.1 million figure was on the City's Measure RS information page. The City's Measure RS page says the City "will have spent approximately $75,000,000 of its own funds over the last three-and-a-half years by June 2027." Separately, the staff report for the Oct. 20 Council meeting puts the total estimated cost of the landslide complex from 2022 through June 30, 2027 at $74.8 million, funded from multiple sources including federal grants (see the October 13 entry).
• The dewatering wells had pumped about 566 million gallons as of mid-September.
• Still pending: the City's $48.7M FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant application for the remediation project and a ~$20M BRIC application. (The City's 2023 BRIC award of $23.3M is a separate, unresolved case. FEMA cancelled the BRIC program nationwide in April 2025 before any of that money reached the City (CBS LA). A federal judge ruled the cancellation unlawful in December 2025 (NAHB), and the City's Grant Tracker still lists the award as "selected." Whether the money will actually arrive hasn't been announced.)

Sources: Assemblymember Muratsuchi's release (Sept. 21) · Patch (Sept. 22, updated that evening with the City's statement) · Daily Breeze (Sept. 22). The winter-readiness work this money supports is described in the September 9 and July 29 entries below.

Council renews the landslide emergencies for 60 days; no date yet for power or gas in Portuguese Bend

At its September 15 meeting the City Council received the latest landslide update and renewed for 60 days the local emergencies in the landslide area and the temporary prohibition of motorcycles and bicycles on a two-mile stretch of Palos Verdes Drive South. The staff report said the Council would consider renewing the emergency declarations again at the next landslide update on November 4, 2026. The staff report also gave this utility status:

• Electricity, Beach Club and Seaview: SCE had re-energized 84 homes in the Portuguese Bend Beach Club and Seaview, plus 2 KCLAD dewatering-well meters in the Beach Club. Seven homes in those two neighborhoods were still without power; SCE will re-energize them once they pass electrical inspection or receive their NEM-PTO from SCE (the utility's permission to operate for a home solar system under net energy metering).
• Electricity, Portuguese Bend Community Association (PBCA): "At this time, there is no indication when power will be restored in the PBCA." The report said the City Manager wrote SCE President and CEO Steven Powell in August asking to meet in person about the latest City-documented movement measurements, in order to reconsider the threshold for restoring power in the PBCA, and that one of two meetings was tentatively scheduled for September 14. As of September 25, 2026, the City's Land Movement Updates page had not posted an outcome. Update Oct. 29: the staff report for the Nov. 4 Council meeting does not mention the Sept. 14 meeting; it says a meeting with SCE's chief operating officer was set for Oct. 30, and it includes an Oct. 13 SCE letter keeping SCE's threshold (see the Oct. 28 SCE entry).
• Gas: there were no new SoCalGas updates since the December 2025 report. Seaview and Beach Club homes that have taken the necessary steps may ask SoCalGas to restore service. The report said there is no indication when gas service will be restored in the PBCA.

Added Oct. 23: the meeting's draft minutes, posted with the Oct. 6 agenda, show these extensions passed together, 4-0, with Mayor Seo absent (Resolutions 2026-72, 2026-73 and 2026-74; the last extends for 60 days the separate local emergency for the Portuguese Bend Community Association, Portuguese Bend Beach Club and Seaview neighborhoods based on energy shortages, planned de-energizing and internet shutoffs). The same meeting had a separate SCE item, a status report on power outages in the Grandview Estates, Grandpoint Lane and Rolling Riviera neighborhoods (staff report), which does not mention the landslide area. According to the draft minutes, SCE was invited but unable to attend; the Council received the report and directed staff to write to the California Public Utilities Commission asking it to intervene if SCE reached no satisfactory resolution within 30 days.

For current evacuation and alert status, check PVPready.gov (Find Your Zone) and Alert SouthBay.

Sources: City Manager's Weekly Administrative Report No. 26-37 (Sept. 16, 2026), page 5 · Sept. 15 staff report (PDF), pages 21–22 and 31, on the City's Granicus agenda site (also linked as "staff report (PDF)" from the City's Sept. 9, 2026 update, now in its 2026 Community Updates Archive) · Patch (Sept. 16).

August survey: average movement below 1 inch per week for the first time since October 2023

The City's summary of its early-August survey puts the average for areas still moving within the active landslide boundary at 0.99 inches per week, down 9.8% from July. The City says it is the first time the overall average has fallen below 1 inch per week since October 2023.

• Portuguese Bend Landslide: 0.81 in/week (down 13.9% from July). The City says this slide has decelerated 92% since just before the deep dewatering wells were installed two years ago, and that roughly 74% of it, within its historical boundary, is now moving less than 1 inch per week.
• Abalone Cove Landslide: 1.29 in/week (down 7.7%). Klondike Canyon: generally still no measurable movement.
• What it means for power: SCE has said that "a continued and sustained reduction in land movement near its electrical infrastructure to less than 1 inch per week" would be needed before it would consider re-energizing the Portuguese Bend area (the City's wording). The 0.99 figure is an average across the whole active area, not a measurement near SCE's lines, and Abalone Cove is still above 1 inch per week, so the average alone does not show that SCE's condition is met. The City said staff were coordinating a meeting with SCE in September to discuss its re-energization plans (see the September 15 entry).
• Winterization: in Klondike Canyon the protective pond liner has been reset, the outlet pipe cleaned and upgraded, and sandbags replaced. Work continues in Upper Altamira, the Seaview graben, Kelvin Canyon and Portuguese Canyon. Electrical cabinets and equipment for the deep wells near the shoreline will be raised to withstand high surf, and drainage along PV Drive South is being improved. The City said all of the work is scheduled to be finished by mid-October, and much of it by the end of September.

Update Oct. 29: by the early-October survey the average was 1.05 inches per week (City, Oct. 28, 2026); see the October 28 entry.

Update Nov. 1: the City Manager's Oct. 14 weekly report (No. 26-41, p. 20) says all originally planned winterization measures were completed in the first week of October, and the City's Oct. 28 update says the measures held up well during recent rainfall (the City Manager's weekly report that day, No. 26-43, p. 20, refers to about 0.5 inch of rain in the week of Oct. 18). As of Nov. 1, 2026, the City had not reported how the measures held up in any rain after Oct. 28. Update Nov. 5: the City Manager's Nov. 5 weekly report (No. 26-44, p. 24) says about 0.9 inch of rain fell on the area the weekend of Oct. 31, 2026, and that the PV Drive South drainage improvements "performed as intended and required no pumping operations or roadway closures." See the October 14 and October 28 entries.

Sources: City 2026 Community Updates Archive (Sept. 9, 2026 entry) · Random Lengths News (Sept. 9).

Approved: City will ask the state to create landslide insurance

The City Council approved sending a letter to state lawmakers and Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara asking them to consider creating a basic landslide insurance program modeled on the California Earthquake Authority or FAIR Plan. Standard homeowners policies and the FAIR Plan exclude land movement, and none of the 62 respondents who answered the insurance question in the City's September 2024 survey reported having land-movement coverage. The decision followed staff's finding that a joint powers authority cannot legally insure private homeowners.

• What's next: city spokesperson Megan Barnes told Patch on September 3 that staff would soon reach out to other landslide-affected cities and expected the letter to be sent in the coming weeks. LAist reported on September 9 that the City plans to contact state legislators and the insurance commissioner by the end of the year.
• The Council's action does not create an insurance program or guarantee that the state will pursue one. City staff said expanding the Earthquake Authority's role to landslides not caused by earthquakes would likely require state legislation.

Sources: Patch (Sept. 3) · LAist (Sept. 9) · background in the August 27 entry below.

FEMA approves the peninsula's first four-city hazard mitigation plan

The four peninsula cities — Rancho Palos Verdes, Palos Verdes Estates, Rolling Hills, and Rolling Hills Estates — announced that FEMA has approved their Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan, the first covering the entire peninsula. FEMA approved the plan in June after a year-plus effort with public outreach and multi-agency coordination; the plan also includes the ACLAD and KCLAD abatement districts. It assesses the hazards the peninsula faces — landslides, earthquakes, wildfire, strong winds, heat — identifies strategies to reduce their impacts, and keeps the participating agencies eligible for state and federal hazard-mitigation funding (an approved plan is a prerequisite for grants like the HMGP dollars behind the buyouts and remediation project).

Coverage: Random Lengths News · Daily Breeze. Plan documents at PVPready.gov.

Landslide insurance: JPA ruled out; push for a state-backed program heads to Council Sept. 1

Ahead of the September 1 Council meeting (7 p.m., McTaggart Hall, with Zoom and livestream), staff released an informational report on options for getting landslide insurance to residents. Standard homeowners policies and the FAIR Plan both exclude earth movement. The findings:

• No coverage reported: in the City's September 2024 survey of landslide-area residents, none of the 62 people who answered a question about insurance reported that their homeowners policy covered land-movement damage. City staff say specialty "difference-in-conditions" policies are nearly impossible to find, extremely expensive, and may not currently be available in Southern California.
• A Joint Powers Authority is not viable: JPAs cannot legally provide residential insurance to private property owners.
• The alternative on the table: the Council will consider sending a letter to state legislators and Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara requesting creation of a program modeled on the California Earthquake Authority or FAIR Plan to offer residents basic landslide coverage. There's precedent for the idea: a state insurance commissioner weighed similar measures in 1998 after El Niño mudslide damage.

Sources: Random Lengths News (Aug. 27) · Patch (Sept. 1) · agenda materials at the City's agenda portal. Update: approved September 1; see the September 1 entry.

City presses SCE to talk re-energization for the last unpowered neighborhood

City Manager Ara Mihranian sent a letter to Southern California Edison president Steven D. Powell requesting an in-person meeting on "restoration and long-term reliability of electrical service in the landslide area." With service already restored in Seaview and the Portuguese Bend Beach Club, the Portuguese Bend Community Association area remains the last still de-energized — households there have been running on solar and generators since the September 2024 shutoffs. The letter's case: movement that peaked near a foot per week at the height of the acceleration now averages 1.1 inches per week, and the dewatering wells have removed over half a billion gallons of groundwater — enough, the City notes, to cover 58 football fields 10 feet deep. The City said its geologist believes the wells have contributed to the slowdown. The condition to watch: the City says SCE told it in January 2025 that "a continued and sustained reduction in land movement near its electrical infrastructure to less than 1 inch per week" would be needed before it would consider re-energizing the Portuguese Bend area. The 1.1 figure in the letter is the complex-wide average, not a measurement near SCE's lines.

The City also put numbers on what operating without grid power costs: roughly $53,000 a month in generator costs for the dewatering wells and about $12,000 a month to run the PBCA area's sewer system. SCE responded that it is reviewing the information internally and will coordinate setting up a discussion in the near future.

Source: City 2026 Community Updates Archive (Aug. 26, 2026 entry) · follow-up: Random Lengths News · SCE's landslide-area page: energized.edison.com/rpv.

Bracing for a possible "Super El Niño" winter

Daily Breeze reporting looked at what a strong El Niño could mean for the landslide area. Federal forecasters see a high chance of a very strong El Niño this winter, and the City is preparing before the rains arrive. The complex is still creeping at about 1.1 inches per week in its active interior, 60% slower than a year earlier. City-hired geologist Mike Phipps told the paper the deep dewatering wells, which have pulled out over half a billion gallons, have slowed movement overall, though not completely in some areas. Whether the dewatering and winterization work holds through a wet winter will show in the surveys taken after significant rain.

• City Manager Ara Mihranian named the top priorities as the upkeep of Palos Verdes Drive South and keeping storm drains clear of debris. Phipps said the City repairs or replaces dewatering wells that shear or are damaged, to keep the system running.
• City officials told the paper that a City remediation plan could cost around $150 million and that they are still pursuing more than $136 million in grants to help close the gap.
• Miles of trails in the landslide area have been closed for several years. Mihranian said the City would like to rebuild them but can't until the landslide is stabilized and funding assistance arrives.

Coverage: Daily Breeze (Aug. 19). The City's preparation work plan (fissure filling, canyon liners, drainage upgrades, due by mid-October) is detailed in the July 29 entry below.

Council ratifies a City purchase of 2 Peppertree Drive (not identified as a buyout-program purchase)

Added Oct. 19, 2026. On Aug. 18 the City Council approved its Consent Calendar 3-0, with Councilmembers Bradley and Perestam absent. Item D adopted Resolution No. 2026-68, which ratifies the Council's earlier closed-session approval of a purchase agreement for 2 Peppertree Drive, and appropriated $289,000 from the General Fund's unallocated fund balance. The staff report puts the cost at up to $289,000 plus customary closing costs.

• Funding and purpose: the staff report describes a General Fund purchase. It does not mention FEMA, the Voluntary Property Buyout Program or the landslide, and it does not say why the City is buying the property.
• Closing depends on a court. The City said escrow will close 70 days after a court issues a new order approving the sale; the hearing was set for Sept. 22, and if the order was signed that day escrow would close on or before Dec. 1, 2026. As of Oct. 22, 2026 we had found no public record of the court's decision or of the sale closing.
• After closing: City staff will request quotes to demolish the structures and restore the site, for the Council to consider at a future meeting. No such item appears on the City's tentative Council agendas through Feb. 16, 2027. Update Nov. 5: the tentative agendas in the City's Nov. 5 weekly report (No. 26-44, pp. 51–54), which run through March 16, 2027, list no such item either.
• Where: on Peppertree Drive, a private road, just north of Palos Verdes Drive South in the Portuguese Bend area. Our check of the City's GIS map places the lot inside the 2025 landslide complex boundary and outside the Abalone Cove and Klondike Canyon abatement districts. It is listed separately on our acquisition tracker.

Sources: City staff report, Aug. 18, 2026 Council meeting, Consent Calendar item D (pp. 1–2) · Council minutes, Aug. 18, 2026 (pp. 3–4) · City weekly report No. 26-42 (Oct. 21, 2026), tentative agendas, pp. 48–50, No. 26-43 (Oct. 28, 2026), pp. 49–51, and No. 26-44 (Nov. 5, 2026), pp. 51–54 · City Zone 2 Landslide Moratorium EIR, Sec. 4.10, p. 4.10-2 (private road) · City GIS landslide complex layers. Next check: a City record of the court's decision, the sale closing, a deed recorded to the City, or a demolition item.

Sanitation Districts work on PV Drive South moved to August 19–20

The City announced that L.A. County Sanitation Districts crews would work along Palos Verdes Drive South from Schooner Drive to the eastern entrance of the landslide area on August 12–13, roughly 4–11 a.m. An Aug. 11 update rescheduled the work to August 19–20, at about the same hours. The City advised drivers to expect delays and consider an alternate route. Its alert does not say what the work was for or name a Districts project.

Correction (Oct. 14, 2026): this entry previously said the work took place August 12–13 and was part of the Districts' emergency project to bypass about 2,000 feet of buried sewer line along PV Drive South. The City's updated alert says the August 12–13 work was rescheduled to August 19–20, and it names no project; the LACSD Action Plan passage about that bypass is dated 2024.

Update Oct. 14: separately, the City announced that the Districts would begin long-term sewer repair work along PV Drive South on Sept. 28, 2026, expected to be completed by February 2027. Flaggers control alternating single-lane traffic from the City's border with San Pedro east of La Rotonda Drive to west of Schooner Drive, about 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays. The City's alert does not attribute that repair to land movement.

Sources: City traffic alert (updated Aug. 11, 2026) · City traffic alert on the sewer repair starting Sept. 28 (Sept. 24, 2026), which links the Districts' project page · LACSD Palos Verdes Action Plan (its bypass passage is marked "UPDATED 08/09/24").

Emergency and bike ban extended; home-stabilization ordinance renewal on the agenda

At its August 4 meeting, the City Council received the latest landslide emergency update — dewatering wells past half a billion gallons removed, movement 60% slower than a year ago. According to the City's August 5 weekly report, it:

• Extended the local emergency declarations in the landslide area by another 60 days.
• Extended the temporary prohibition on bicycles, motorcycles, and similar wheeled vehicles along the roughly two-mile landslide stretch of Palos Verdes Drive South.

Added Oct. 6: the meeting's official minutes show these extensions passed together, 4-1, with Councilmember Bradley voting no (Resolutions 2026-64, 2026-65 and 2026-66; the last extends the separate local emergency for the Portuguese Bend Community Association, Portuguese Bend Beach Club and Seaview neighborhoods based on energy shortages, planned de-energizing and internet shutoffs).

The City also said before the meeting that the Council would consider renewing the home-stabilization urgency ordinance for two more years, through December 31, 2028. That ordinance, first adopted in September 2024, streamlines approvals for leveling systems, alternative foundations such as I-beams and cargo-structure supports, and temporary modular housing during repairs. The City's August 5 weekly report did not list an outcome for it, and as of September 25, 2026 we found no official record of one. Added Oct. 6: the official minutes record that, after a public hearing, the Council adopted Urgency Ordinance No. 700U, 5-0, extending the regulations and procedures for temporary foundation measures to preserve existing structures and authorizing temporary housing on the same site as an existing residence within the Greater Portuguese Bend Landslide Complex. The minutes do not state the new end date. As of September 25, 2026, the City's Home Stabilization page still said temporary solutions are permitted through December 31, 2026 unless extended by the Council. Confirm the current end date with the City's Building & Safety Division.

Sources: City Weekly Administrative Report No. 26-31 (Aug. 5, 2026, PDF) · Official minutes of the Aug. 4, 2026 Council meeting (pages 6–8) · City 2026 updates archive (July 29, 2026) · City Home Stabilization page (checked Sept. 25, 2026).

SCE schedules "Tension Relief" construction in the Rolling Hills area

In an update dated August 2026, SCE said construction on its Tension Relief Strategy was expected to begin in the Rolling Hills area on September 1, 2026, pause for the holiday moratorium in late November 2026, and resume from January through the second quarter of 2027. SCE said environmental restrictions for the California gnatcatcher may affect the start date, along with weather and other issues. SCE's March 24, 2026 letter had given April 2, 2026 as the start date; some work did begin in April (see the update below). As of September 25, 2026, SCE's page still described the start as expected and had not confirmed that work has begun.

• Expect a series of planned electrical outages and possible traffic delays during construction. SCE says it will notify customers in advance of outages and that traffic-control staff will be on site (outage alerts: sce.com/outage).
• SCE says this work "does not affect or depend on your current re-energization status." It describes tension relief as useful only where land movement is at or below the rates seen before 2023.
• SCE's condition for re-energizing the Portuguese Bend area is separate: a continued and sustained reduction in movement near its electrical infrastructure to less than 1 inch per week (see the August 26 entry).

Update Oct. 14: in an Oct. 1, 2026 joint status report to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), filed in Rolling Hills' complaint against SCE over the 2024 shutoffs, SCE and the City of Rolling Hills report on SCE's long-term grid resiliency project in Rolling Hills, whose pole design uses the new tension relief strategy. They say SCE replaced the first three poles on April 9, 2026. Because the area is habitat for a protected bird species and it was nesting season, SCE could not begin replacing the remaining poles until September. SCE began vegetation clearing on September 1, 2026, followed by construction, and expected to finish three of the five planned construction segments by mid-October 2026 and the whole project in the second quarter of 2027. The same report says SCE de-energized 54 Rolling Hills customers in September 2024 and had restored power to all but 10 by September 30, 2026; of those 10, two "should be re-energized soon" and eight do not plan to return to SCE service.

Sources: SCE's Palos Verdes Peninsula Landslide page ("UPDATE August 2026") · SCE's community updates archive (March 24, 2026 letter) · CPUC joint status report, City of Rolling Hills v. SCE (C.24-10-008), filed Oct. 1, 2026.

Land movement now 60% slower than a year ago

The City's summary of its early-July survey data shows the landslide complex moving 60% slower than one year ago, despite a slightly above-average rainy season. Average movement in areas still moving within the active boundary fell to 1.1 inches per week, a 15% decrease since May.

• Portuguese Bend Landslide: decelerated ~13.9% to 0.94 in/week.
• Abalone Cove Landslide: decelerated ~15.8% to 1.4 in/week.
• Klondike Canyon Landslide: generally no measurable movement.
• Deep dewatering wells have now removed over half a billion gallons of groundwater since fall 2024; production rose after two wells sheared by land movement were re-drilled.

Sources: City 2026 Community Updates Archive (July 29, 2026 entry) · Random Lengths News (July 30).

Rainy-season work plan underway ahead of forecast El Niño conditions

The City's community update detailed preparations for the 2026–27 rainy season, targeted for completion by mid-October: "A work plan is underway to prevent water infiltration into the ground by filling fissures, resetting protective liner and sandbags in canyons, installing drainage improvements, and strengthening existing winterization measures to stabilize the land in the event of heavy rain." Staff briefed the Council on these efforts — including forecast El Niño conditions — at the August 4 meeting. The City's stated aim is to keep rainwater from soaking into the slide, while its deep wells pump groundwater out.

Update Nov. 1: the City Manager's Oct. 14 weekly report (No. 26-41, p. 20) says all originally planned winterization measures were completed in the first week of October; see the October 14 and October 28 entries.

Source: City 2026 Community Updates Archive (July 29, 2026 entry).

Landslide costs push a hotel-tax measure (now Measure RS) onto the November ballot

The City Council voted to place a Public Safety/City Services measure (since designated Measure RS: a hotel-tax increase from 10% to 13%, projected at about $2.2 million a year) on the November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election ballot. The City's framing ties it directly to the landslide: helping "properly prepare for future landslides and other natural disasters" while maintaining public safety patrols, emergency preparedness, and street maintenance. For context, the City projects it will have spent approximately $72.1 million of its own funds on landslide response and repairs by June 2027, with more costs expected in future years.

Update Nov. 5: for the unofficial results, see the Nov. 3 entry.

Official measure page: Measure RS · details, FAQs, and the community presentation: City measure page · rpvca.gov/elections. Coverage: LAist (Oct. 16, 2026).

Buyout program: 27 homes selected, Round 3 application in, purchases still pending

The City's program update laid out exactly where the FEMA/Cal OES voluntary buyouts stand:

• 27 homes selected from 85 eligible applications — 22 in Round 1 ($42M HMGP) and 5 in Round 2 ($10.16M HMGP). If the City has not contacted you about an appraisal, your property is not among the 27.
• A Round 3 application has been submitted — $19 million that could fund roughly 8 more homes — and awaits FEMA's selection decision.
• No purchases have begun. The program remains in FEMA's pre-award phase; the City answered a federal request for information in May 2026 and has no award timeline. Once funded, reimbursements are expected in batches of about three properties at a time.
• Consultant Black & Veatch is administering the program; appraisals are based on pre-disaster (December 1, 2022) fair market value.

Sources: City 2026 Community Updates Archive (July 9, 2026 entry, with the City's July 9 buyout update) · City Voluntary Property Buyout Program page. Update Oct. 6: on Sept. 29 FEMA announced approval of more than $54 million for the City to acquire and demolish 27 residential properties; see the September 29 entry. Update Oct. 14: the City says it has been formally awarded over $54 million for Rounds 1 and 2 and that purchases are expected to start in the coming months; see the October 14 entry.

Council advances work on a third landslide abatement district

The Council directed staff to continue developing a new Geologic Hazard Abatement District (GHAD) covering the Portuguese Bend landslide — a third district alongside the Abalone Cove (ACLAD) and Klondike Canyon (KCLAD) districts formed in 1981 — and to return in September with a more detailed cost analysis, including discussion of potentially combining districts. Estimated startup costs of roughly $500,000 were part of the discussion, along with two of the main arguments for a GHAD: its work is exempt from CEQA review (sparing potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of delay) and a GHAD carries certain immunity from liability for abating a geologic hazard. A GHAD is funded by assessments on properties within its boundary and can own and operate mitigation measures like dewatering wells.

Next step: staff will negotiate fees with a consulting firm to assist with formation, with a professional services agreement coming back to the Council for approval — tentatively September 2026 — alongside the more detailed cost analysis. Further Council direction and public input will follow as the process advances. Update Nov. 1: as of Nov. 1, 2026, the City had not reported that the agreement or the cost analysis had come back to the Council. We found no GHAD item on the Council's agendas for Sept. 1, Sept. 15, Oct. 6, Oct. 20 or Nov. 4, 2026, and the tentative agendas through Feb. 16, 2027 in the City Manager's Oct. 28 weekly report (No. 26-43, pp. 49–51) do not list one (see Meetings). Update Nov. 5: the tentative agendas through March 16, 2027 in the City Manager's Nov. 5 weekly report (No. 26-44, pp. 51–54) do not list one either.

Sources: Random Lengths News (July 9, 2026) · Daily Breeze (July 14, 2026) · City Council agenda materials via the City's agenda portal.

FEMA public notice: the City proposes acquiring 45 residential properties as part of a broader mitigation package

On July 2, 2026, the City posted FEMA's Cumulative Final Public Notice (Landslide Stabilization). It says FEMA "intends to provide federal financial assistance" for a group of City projects: landslide stabilization, property acquisition and demolition, and permanent power for the dewatering wells. The notice states the City "proposes to acquire and demolish 45 residential properties" in the Portuguese Bend, Seaview, and Portuguese Bend Beach Club neighborhoods, with the land to remain deed-restricted open space in perpetuity after demolition. It also says the land movement has severely damaged about 130 homes.

What kind of notice it is: a notice, under Executive Orders 11988 (Floodplain Management) and 11990 (Protection of Wetlands), of FEMA's intent to carry out an action affecting a floodplain and a wetland. It is not a funding award, and it does not list which properties would be acquired.

Important distinction: the 45-property figure is larger than the 27 homes selected so far under buyout Rounds 1 and 2 (plus the pending Round 3 application for roughly 8 more). The notice does not say how the 45 relate to those rounds, and it does not mean 45 homes have been chosen or funded.

Source: City News Flash "FEMA - Cumulative Final Public Notice (Landslide Stabilization)", posted July 2, 2026 and published through July 20, 2026 (now in the City's News Flash Archive) · the notice as a PDF, with the City Clerk's July 2, 2026 affidavit of posting.

Wayfarers Chapel at 75: a rebuild at Battery Barnes still depends on a land transfer

Wayfarers Chapel first opened on Mother's Day, May 13, 1951. On May 13, 2026, it marked 75 years with an event on the lawn of the City's Civic Center and tours of its prospective new site at Battery Barnes, next to Rancho Palos Verdes City Hall. The chapel closed in February 2024 and its disassembly was completed in July 2024; its original structure now rests in preserved pieces. The board's "Rebuilding the Wright Legacy" campaign is raising money to rebuild on the new site.

• The land: Battery Barnes is owned by the U.S. Coast Guard and would have to be transferred to the City first. In January 2026 Rep. Ted Lieu announced plans to introduce a bill authorizing that transfer, and the chapel says he continues to work to speed it up. The City has said the proposal is in its early stages, with no commitments or agreements in place.
• The cost: LAist reported in June 2025 that the chapel needs to raise at least $10 million to rebuild the chapel alone, and an estimated $20 million for additions such as a visitors center and a café. The plans shown then include a visitors center, museum, café and gardens.

Sources: Wayfarers Chapel (May 13, 2026) · Wayfarers Chapel, Significant Dates (closure and disassembly dates) · City 2026 Community Updates Archive (Jan. 20, 2026 entry) · LAist (June 1, 2025). Follow the chapel's official updates.

First directed federal dollars: ~$2.3 million for two mitigation projects

The Los Angeles Times reported that Rep. Ted Lieu and Sen. Adam Schiff announced that Rancho Palos Verdes is set to receive almost $2.3 million ($2.29 million) in fiscal 2026 congressional community-project funding, split evenly between the two abatement districts, and called it the first federal funds directed to the landslide area since the City declared a local emergency in October 2023. Sen. Schiff's own release covers the $1,145,144 for the Klondike Canyon district. The City's Grant Tracker lists both requests as "funded by Congress" (checked Sept. 25, 2026); we have not found a report that the money has been paid out.

• $1.145M to ACLAD (Abalone Cove Landslide Abatement District) for drainage improvements at the toe of the Abalone Cove landslide, primarily benefiting the Portuguese Bend community.
• $1.145M to KCLAD (Klondike Canyon Landslide Abatement District) for additional dewatering wells, primarily serving the Seaview and Portuguese Bend Beach Club neighborhoods.

Update Oct. 14: City documents now put these grants differently. The staff report for the Oct. 20 Council meeting calls them FY 2026 FEMA Pre-Disaster Mitigation grants and says that in June 2026 ACLAD and KCLAD adopted resolutions assigning them to the City and agreed in writing that the money be used to design part of the City's remediation project (BRIC 2022 Phase 2, West and East). It says the amounts "were previously reported for $1,145,144 each" and, "based on FEMA's official website," lists a federal share of about $1.12 million per grant. FEMA's June 22, 2026 release listed $1.1 million for each project and required an application before any award, and a City letter dated Oct. 7, attached to the staff report, lists the grants as "applied for and are pending allocation." We have not found a report that either grant has been awarded or paid. See the October 13 entry.

Sources: Los Angeles Times (May 7, 2026) · Sen. Schiff news release (May 8, 2026) · City Grant Tracker (checked Sept. 25, 2026) · appropriations documentation via Rep. Ted Lieu's community project funding requests · FEMA release R9-NR-26-17 (June 22, 2026) · staff report for Oct. 20, 2026 Consent Item G (grant table on p. 2; the Oct. 7 letter in Attachment D).

The bill so far: about $61.5 million, and a budget squeeze ahead

On the day of the Council's May 5 financial update, Spectrum News reported City Manager Ara Mihranian as saying the City will have spent $61.5 million on landslide-related mitigation from October 2022 through June 30, 2026, including running its deep dewatering wells. (The City's March 18 update had given $64.4 million for the same period; its April 29 update revised that to about $61.5 million of the City's own funds.) Spectrum also reported that the City had been denied FEMA emergency aid funds and has appealed, and that, according to Mihranian, projections show City reserves running out by the 2027–28 fiscal year. For scale, long-term stabilization has been estimated at roughly $150 million, against the City's ~$40 million annual operating budget (LAist, April 2025).

On the grant front, the City's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program application for the Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project has grown to $48.7 million (from $40M, after a cost-benefit analysis). On March 17 the Council committed an additional $2.1 million toward the required match, on top of the $10 million it authorized in August 2025, for $12.1 million in all.

Sources: Spectrum News (May 5, 2026) · City 2026 Community Updates Archive (March 18 and April 29, 2026 entries) · background: LAist (January 2025).

About 16 miles of Reserve trails permanently altered

LAist reported that landslide damage has closed dozens of trails in the Portuguese Bend area of the Palos Verdes Nature Reserve, with around 16 miles of trails damaged. City Manager Ara Mihranian said crews do not go into those areas regularly and occasionally use drones to look at the damage, and the reporting said the damage will likely never be fully repaired. Heed posted closures; ground near fissures can be unstable even when it looks solid.

Details: LAist (April 20, 2026) and the City's trail conditions page.

Winter survey data: movement sped up after early-season rain, then began slowing again in March

The City's surveys over the 2025–26 winter showed movement picking up again before it resumed slowing. The City's figures for areas still moving within the active landslide boundary:

• Early January 2026 survey: average 1.66 inches per week, up 14.3% since November. The Abalone Cove Landslide accelerated about 18% to about 2.15 in/week, and the Portuguese Bend Landslide about 20.8% to 1.38 in/week.
• Early February 2026 survey: average 1.74 in/week, up 8.7% since January. Abalone Cove about 2.24 in/week (up 5%); Portuguese Bend 1.5 in/week (up 7.1%).
• Early March 2026 survey: average 1.63 in/week, down 5.1% since February. Abalone Cove about 2.14 in/week (down 4%); Portuguese Bend 1.37 in/week (down 5.7%).
• The Klondike Canyon Landslide showed no measurable movement in all three surveys.

The City's geologist said the most likely factor in the reacceleration was the added mass of significant early-season rainfall percolating into the landslide, and noted that a similar pattern was seen in March and April 2025. As of the week of March 12, the City reported 14.14 inches of rain for the 2025–26 season, about 103% of average. After the March survey, the geologist said the deceleration was likely due to a combination of the waning rainy season and the winterization measures and dewatering wells, which had removed over 450 million gallons of groundwater by then. For later survey results, see the July 29 and September 9 entries.

Source: City 2026 Community Updates Archive (Jan. 29, March 12 and March 18, 2026 entries).

Buyouts: still no purchases; Round 2 selected and a Round 3 application submitted

Homeowners selected for buyouts were still waiting for purchases to begin. The City's March 18 recap said 22 homes had been selected for Round 1 but the City had not yet been awarded the first $42 million grant, and cannot purchase homes until FEMA formally awards the grants.

In early February, Cal OES told the City it had been selected for $10.16 million in waitlisted FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds (Round 2, about 5 homes), and staff were working on a $19 million Round 3 HMGP application (about 8 homes). The City's Grant Tracker lists the $19 million Round 3 application as submitted in February 2026, and the City's March 18 recap said it had submitted three HMGP grant applications for the buyout program. Cal OES works with the City to administer these FEMA grants. For where things stood in July, see the July 9, 2026 entry; for the City's Oct. 14 announcement that the Round 1 and 2 grants have been formally awarded, see the October 14, 2026 entry.

Sources: City Voluntary Property Buyout Program page (Feb. 4, 2026 update) · City 2026 Community Updates Archive (Feb. 4 and March 18, 2026 entries) · City Grant Tracker (Round 3 row).

Overnight closures on Palos Verdes Drive South for a groundwater study

A two-mile stretch of Palos Verdes Drive South through the landslide area, from Peppertree Drive to Schooner Drive, was planned to close overnight (8 p.m.–6 a.m.) February 11–13 for Public Works surveying. The survey was part of a City study of groundwater in the Portuguese Bend Landslide; the City said the full closure let subsurface-mapping equipment detect groundwater without noise and vibration interference. The City reported on February 13 that the work finished one day early.

Source: City 2026 Community Updates Archive (Jan. 29, Feb. 4 and Feb. 13, 2026 entries).

The human cost of buyout delays: selected owners fighting off foreclosure

LAist reporting put faces on what the buyout program's pre-award limbo means for selected owners: mortgages still come due on homes that are red-tagged and unlivable, and the program requires that homes not be in active foreclosure proceedings to remain eligible. One profiled Portuguese Bend couple, who had taken out an $80,000 loan to have their house cut in half to slow the damage before it was eventually red-tagged, faced a lender demand for about $44,000 to bring their mortgage current, a foreclosure threat that could have disqualified them from the very buyout they were waiting on. With the City warning that federal funds could take years to arrive, similar squeezes may face other selected owners.

Reporting: LAist (Dec. 16, 2025). Update Oct. 14, 2026: the City says FEMA has formally awarded the Round 1 and 2 grants, and that purchases, in groups of a few homes at a time, are expected to start in the coming months and will likely take a few years to complete for all 27 properties; see the October 14, 2026 entry. If you're struggling with a mortgage on a slide-damaged home, contact your lender early and in writing — see the Resident Guide's buyout section.

Offshore: monitoring finds more fish on the restored Palos Verdes reef

NOAA Fisheries reported that the Palos Verdes Reef Restoration Project, an artificial rocky reef built off the peninsula in 2020, had increased fish biomass by more than 150% four years after construction, based on 2024 monitoring. NOAA says sewage outfalls and landslides stripped much of the kelp from the eastern Palos Verdes shelf, and many natural reefs there were smothered by sediment and affected by historical DDT and PCB contamination; the new reefs were built high enough to avoid being reburied by future landslides. The Daily Breeze reported in August 2025 that red tide had recently reduced biomass density.

Sources: NOAA Fisheries (Dec. 8, 2025) · Daily Breeze (Aug. 26, 2025).

Separate bluff slough near Marguerite Drive — later assessed as static

A roughly 300–400-foot section of coastal bluff off Marguerite Drive near Palos Verdes Drive West — on the peninsula's west side, roughly four miles from and entirely separate from the Greater Portuguese Bend complex — sloughed about 50–60 feet toward the coastline. No injuries or evacuations; four backyards along the stretch between Christmas Tree Cove and Vista Point were affected (one badly) but no homes were threatened, and the City's geologist monitored the area, which was subsequently assessed as static. A reminder that the peninsula's bluffs can move outside the main landslide too.

Sources: City update · KTLA · L.A. Times · Daily Breeze · AP (archived).

Permanent ban on new residential construction in the landslide complex

The City Council adopted Ordinance No. 692, permanently prohibiting new residential construction — including home additions — in the Greater Portuguese Bend Landslide Complex, effective September 18, 2025. The zone covers the Seaview, Portuguese Bend Community Association, and Portuguese Bend Beach Club neighborhoods: roughly 400 homes and 130 vacant, privately owned lots, with boundaries updated to match the expanded limits of recent movement. Owners may still repair, restore, and replace homes within their existing footprint (swimming-pool repair and replacement is excluded), and previously granted new-construction permits were revoked. The permanent ordinance replaced the emergency moratorium in place since October 2023.

Details: City Landslide Area Development Regulations · LAist.

The year the slide slowed down

Movement slowed across much of the complex during 2025, though not steadily. The City later said movement picked up again in March and April 2025 after February and March rain, and that deceleration resumed by May 2025 as the rainy season waned and the deep dewatering wells kept pumping. In May 2025 the City's geologist, Mike Phipps, attributed the continued slowing largely to significantly below-average rainfall through April, the winterization measures put in place the previous fall, and ongoing dewatering by the City and the two abatement districts (ACLAD and KCLAD). Other developments during the year:

• Seaview and Portuguese Bend Beach Club: no measurable movement reported since about February 2025 (SoCalGas, May 2025). The City had reported no new movement in these two neighborhoods in the three months before January 17, 2025.
• Gas restoration: SoCalGas upgraded and tested infrastructure in Seaview and, starting July 10, 2025, began restoring service to homeowners who wanted to reconnect.
• Financial Assistance Grant Program: closed to applications June 30, 2025. The City had paid about $2.2 million on 223 completed and verified applications (up to $10,000 each) from a $2.8 million fund provided by Supervisor Janice Hahn's office.
• New wells: using a $1.6 million loan from the City, the Abalone Cove Landslide Abatement District (ACLAD) installed 10 deep dewatering wells. In August 2025 the City's geologist called the Abalone Cove Landslide's 25% deceleration from June to August a very promising indication of their effectiveness.
• Remediation project: the ~$33 million Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project advanced through environmental review, though its $23.3 million FEMA BRIC grant was thrown into doubt when FEMA cancelled the BRIC program nationwide in April 2025 before any money arrived (CBS LA). A federal judge later ruled that cancellation unlawful (December 2025), but the grant's status is still unresolved.

Sources: City 2025 Community Updates Archive (Jan. 17, May 7, June 26, July 2, July 17, Aug. 15 and Aug. 20, 2025 entries) · City 2026 Community Updates Archive (Jan. 29, 2026 entry, on the spring 2025 reacceleration) · SoCalGas (May 22, 2025).

Peak crisis: shutoffs, buyouts, and the dewatering push

• September 2024: Southern California Edison cut power to about 245 homes on September 1–2 (about 140 in Portuguese Bend from September 1, and 105 in Seaview from the evening of September 2, many of the Seaview homes only temporarily), then to 54 more customers in the lower Portuguese Bend Beach Club on September 9. SoCalGas had stopped gas service to about 135 Portuguese Bend homes in late July. Governor Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency in the City on September 3; the City noted that day that the proclamation did not open up individual financial assistance.
• September 2024: Council adopted the urgency ordinance easing permits for home stabilization.
• October 2024: City, FEMA, and Cal OES announced the $42 million voluntary buyout program (applications closed November 8, 2024); Council approved the $2.8 million emergency financial assistance program.
• Fall 2024: Deep dewatering wells began pumping at the slide's toe — the start of what would become more than half a billion gallons removed. NASA/JPL airborne radar measured movement up to ~4 inches per week in residential areas.

Sources for the shutoff and emergency figures: NBC News (Sept. 2024) · City 2024 Community Updates Archive (July 27–29 and Sept. 2–9, 2024 entries) · Governor's Office (Sept. 3, 2024).

Record rains reawaken the complex

Back-to-back historic wet seasons in 2023 and 2024 saturated the peninsula. The four landslides — long creeping at inches per year in places — merged into broader, faster movement across roughly 700 acres. Fissures opened across the Portuguese Bend Reserve and neighborhoods; Palos Verdes Drive South buckled repeatedly; the City declared a local emergency; and in February 2024 the landmark Wayfarers Chapel closed as its structures twisted, before being carefully dismantled for future reconstruction.