Originally Posted by DLUX WRX

speaking of hail... i wouldnt mind if we had another hail storm like last year. it was funny watching people try to drive in 1/2 an inch of hail.

Originally Posted by SFgate.com

(02-27) 11:37 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- A 75-foot-wide chunk of Telegraph Hill that San Francisco officials described as slide-prone gave way this morning, sending an avalanche of rocks into buildings on Broadway and rendering six structures uninhabitable.

No one was hurt in the slide, which pushed huge boulders and rocks down the North Beach hillside into a 30-foot high pile, officials said. One hundred residents were evacuated.

The slide occurred just above Broadway Street at Montgomery Street around 3:30 a.m. Broadway was closed to traffic for several hours this morning but has since been reopened.

The slide began just below a building of condominiums on Vallejo Street, causing rocks to crash down into the rear of Broadway Showgirls Cabaret, next to a residential hotel. Police barricades are blocking the front of Showgirls, which has been red-tagged, as well as two four-story apartment buildings west of the club.

Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who represents the neighborhood, said rock movements are a "rather common occurrence in winter," on Telegraph Hill's southern and eastern slopes.

Peskin called the slide "a large event but not a catastrophic failure."

"Most of that side of the hill has been bolted and pinned and netted," he said

The condominium owners at the Vallejo Street building just above the slide recently had been in touch with a geologist about securing the hillside, but found that most of the cliff actually belongs to the property owners below, they said.

The geologist told the condo owners that the hillside was stable "for the time being," noted Adele Laurence of Laurence Management, which manages the Vallejo Street property, which according to public records was built in 1973.

Resident manager Anne White, who owns a condo there, said the building's homeowners association had the south side of the hillside shorn up about five years ago after some rocks fell, and that a geologist who surveyed the area recently suggested that the neighbors on Montgomery and Broadway streets do some further work, she said.

The geologist also said, however, that no reinforcement work could be done until after the rainy season, White said.

"We have contacted the neighbors and said we need to stabilize the hill and that we would cooperate with them," Laurence said.

Officials said the slide may have been caused by heavy rains Monday night, but the National Weather Service said only about three-quarters of an inch of water had fallen in the city since Saturday afternoon.

The hill was "super saturated ... and it just came down," Department of Public Works Deputy Director Mohammed Nuru said this morning.

In total, said Nuru, six buildings have been red-tagged -- two residential buildings on Montgomery, the condos on Vallejo and three buildings on Broadway -- meaning no one can go inside. Several others have been yellow-tagged, officials said, meaning residents have limited access to the buildings but cannot stay there.

One three-unit brick building on Montgomery Street was red-tagged around 9 a.m., after a DPW engineer determined it was not safe. "There's a big piece of retaining wall just hanging there and it doesn't look too good," said the engineer, who did not want to give his name.

Steve Liu, 29, a resident of 432 Broadway St., one of the red-tagged buildings, said he was watching television at 3:20 a.m. when he heard, "boom, boom."

"I thought it was an earthquake -- it turned out to be a huge landslide. It's scary," he said.

Liu walked to the back of the building and saw rocks everywhere. "Mud, but mostly rocks," he said.

"If you had been standing there they would have knocked you out," he added.

Liu, who said he has lived in the building for 10 years, said the landlord put up some netting behind the building about four or five years ago. There have been minor slides from time to time, he said, and sometimes small rocks and dirt come loose.

"If it's going to happen, it's going to happen," he said.

Julie Christensen, who lives on the west side of Telegraph Hill, said it's not the first time the North Beach area has seen rock slides.

"I remember watching part of a hillside come down in the 1980s -- I saw a boulder the size of a Volkswagen Bug roll down the hill on Sansome Street," she said.

Peskin said the incident calls attention to the importance of sound permitting.

"The earth moves and rocks slide and certainly the one big question for San Francisco is that we have to be very diligent about where we permit houses to be built. But having said that, houses exist there and now steps have to be taken to make the site as secure as possible," he said. "Ultimately no amount of engineering is going to overcome the forces of nature."

The Red Cross is helping house the evacuated residents at the Chinese Recreation Center on Mason Street. According to the agency, residents from 80 units in four buildings have been displaced. White, the manager of the condominium building, expressed hope that many of the residents would be allowed back in their homes quickly.

Nuru said it would take officials some time to determine how to clean up the debris and stabilize the huge hill.

Nuru said engineers most likely will need a crane to go over the top of the buildings and remove the debris, Nuru said. He said engineers are studying how to stabilize the cliff and probably will have to drill into the hillside and install bolts as well as soft netting.

The slide pushed a huge pile of rocks -- 30 feet high in some places -- down the hill, knocking down several trees and slamming huge chunks of rocks against the back door of Showgirls, pushing in the back wall of the building.

Gary Marlin, whose management company oversees the club, said he was alerted around 3:30 a.m. after the club's fire alarm system went off, most likely because the landslide caused a water main to break near or inside the building.

"Fortunately, everyone had just left," Marlin said, adding that there is serious water damage to the club.

Marlin was aware of severe damage to several other buildings, including the two hotels on either side of Showgirls and another building on the corner.

He said the club has never had problems with the hillside before.

But Mayor Gavin Newsom, speaking to reporters on scene this morning, said the slide was not a shock.

"I'm not surprised, based on the intensity of the rain, hail and lightning (last night)," he said, adding that it shows how important it is for the city to have protocols to deal with natural disasters.

Anyone interested in assisting the affected residents may call the Red Cross at (888) 4-HELP-BAY or visit www.redcrossbayarea.org.