--- title: "Luxury Homes Teetering Above Cliff After Landslide" description: "A landslide caused by the recent atmospheric river left three oceanside mansions in Southern California dangling off the edge of a cliff." date: "2024-02-13" modified: "2024-02-13" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/luxury-homes-cliff-landslide" categories: - "Climate Change" - "Environment" - "Science & Energy" tags: - "california" - "climate change" - "extreme weather events" - "the digest" --- # Luxury Homes Teetering Above Cliff After Landslide ![A landslide caused by the recent atmospheric river left three oceanside mansions in Southern California dangling off the edge of a cliff.]() *Dana Point, CA - December 29: People stand and watch as waves crash onshore at Capistrano Beach in Dana Point on Friday morning, December 28, 2023. Large waves continued to hit the coastline for the second day causing flooding and beach erosion. (Photo by Mark Rightmire/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images) \Image: Mark Rightmire/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images\* ## Cliffside Horror An atmospheric river tore through Southern California this week, flooding homes and businesses and causing destructive mudslides. The homes of some folks, it seems, have been literally brought to the brink. As [local news outlet *ABC7* reports](), three oceanfront mansions in Dana Point, California were dangling on the edge of a cliff after a terrifying landslide wrought by the storms took out a massive chunk of the hillside below. The city reportedly told *ABC7* that the houses weren't in any immediate danger, and per the local outlet, no emergency calls were made to local officials to report the landslide. Red-flagged or not, though, the videos of the multimillion-dollar Orange County homes teetering off the cliffside are a harrowing reminder of the dangers of climate change-intensified extreme weather events. After all, if the folks who own luxury cliffside mansions in sunny Southern California aren't safe from the disastrous impacts of climate change, who is? https://twitter.com/zillowgonewild/status/1757245196792742101 ## Swiftly Tilting While the footage of these homes is a potent illustration of the [atmospheric river's]() Californian rampage, the luxury seesaws are only a blip in last week's widespread destruction. In sum, [according to *The Guardian*](), the five-day storms racked up an estimated $11 billion in "damage and economic loss," drenching California in roughly half the state's annual rainfall in less than a week. Nine people were killed. What's worse, scientists are warning that this is only the beginning. Our oceans play a central role in global weather patterns, and as they get warmer, [chaotic shifts in normal weather patterns follow](); climate researchers have warned of a resulting increased risk of extreme weather events for years now. Combine this reality with the fact that nations around the world — the US included — are falling woefully short in the race to build [climate-mitigating infrastructure](), and property, people, and local ecosystems adapted for centuries-old climate systems worldwide are at the risk of [immense devastation](). "Given the amount of warming we've seen so far," UCLA atmospheric physicist and climate scientist Alex Hall told the *Guardian*, "we expect that big precipitation events should be about 10 percent more intense than they were before greenhouse gasses were added to the atmosphere." "The scary thing is that if you look into the future to the point where we have twice as much warming as today, you have events that are 20 percent more intense," he added, "and entirely new classes of events that don't even exist now." **More on climate change:** [*Scientists Simulated Runaway Greenhouse Effect and It's Horrifying*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()