The scene in the neighborhood known as Lomas del Rubí has been apocalyptic in recent days. Residents clamber like ants over the rubble of their former houses, caved in and ripped from their foundations.

They carry out bicycles, furniture, doors and windows, drawers spilling with clothes—anything they can get their hands on. Some camp in the street, intent on guarding their belongings, refusing to leave the neighborhood where they have lived for more than three decades.

“This used to be my terrace, it had such a nice view,” said Ulises Cárdenas, 53, earlier this week as he stepped through the shell of his two-story concrete block house, now filled with cracks and stripped of its contents. “This used to be my street,” he added, glancing at the pile of crumpled roadway just below.

The collapse that started late last month and continued through last weekend has devastated this tight-knit neighborhood of working class families south of downtown Tijuana. Angry, frightened and uncertain of the future, residents have been demanding answers and action from government officials.


“I was born here, I was raised here,” one tearful woman told Mayor Juan Manuel Gastélum when he visited the neighborhood on Tuesday together with Gov. Francisco Vega de Lamadrid. “We didn’t just lose a house, we lost a life.”

1 / 32 A resident looks over the damage area. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 2 / 32 Santiago Valdovinos looks down at his home. His home once stood where he stands. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 3 / 32 Two people walked down a street up to the point where it just collapsed and fell down the hill. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 4 / 32 The ground moved causing large damage in the area. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 5 / 32 Residents look at the damage area. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 6 / 32 Residents blame the construction project on the left for disturbing the hillside to the point that the destruction occurred. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 7 / 32 Residents look over the destruction. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 8 / 32 Residents work on fixing a staircase. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 9 / 32 Wilber Hernandez is concern that he will soon need to evacuate his family. The crack on the ground behind him has been growing. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 10 / 32 Houses slid down the hillside spilling their contents out. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 11 / 32 A group of girls carry some salvage pipes. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 12 / 32 A section of street just dropped at least 20 feet. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 13 / 32 Resident Jose Manuel Armendaris Gonzales worried his home will be next in the colapse. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 14 / 32 A street above the collapse a makeshift criss center has been created by the residents. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 15 / 32 Signs around the neighborhood ask for help from the government. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 16 / 32 Home fall on top of each other. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 17 / 32 Children stand where a street use to be at. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 18 / 32 Residents Oswin Guzman on the left and Christian Zarsosa on the right look over the damages. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 19 / 32 Some residents salvage some materials. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 20 / 32 The left side of the photo shows the steepness of the slide. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 21 / 32 Some residents manage to carry out some belongings. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 22 / 32 Residents gather at a street that has been destroyed. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 23 / 32 Residents sorted through belongings in the street in front of damaged houses. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 24 / 32 Residents salvage anything of value. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 25 / 32 Homes collapse during the land slide. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 26 / 32 Residents look over the damage area. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 27 / 32 Homes collapse during the land slide. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 28 / 32 Aerial views of a large landslide in the Lomas del Rub’ neighborhood of Tijuana that has displaced at least 70 families. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 29 / 32 Residents carry a mattress an other belongings. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 30 / 32 Some residents fo Lomas del Rubi community in Tijuana lost their homes to a land slide. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 31 / 32 Resident Jose Manuel Armendaris Gonzales helps carry out a bicycle from the derby. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune) 32 / 32 Religious figures lay outside a home that is on the edge of collapsing. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union Tribune)

There have been no reports of fatalities or injuries, as houses already had been evacuated following a series of cracks that began around Jan. 18, and gradually spread across the hillside. As of Thursday, 96 dwellings had been labeled uninhabitable by the city’s Civil Protection Office—either already destroyed or in imminent danger of collapse. As a result, close to 400 people have lost their homes.

Many of Tijuana’s hillside neighborhoods are vulnerable to similar scenarios, as rain, temblors, leaks of underground utility lines and illegal discharges can overburden the unsteady surfaces where many of the city’s residents have built their houses.


“Every landslide has its particularities, there are many unanswered questions still,” said Juan Manuel Rodríguez Esteves, a geographer at the Colegio de La Frontera Norte who has studied the phenomenon. “But if you analyze all the landslides, you will see that the common denominator is unstable soils.”

Antonio Rosquillas, director of Baja California’s Civil Protection Office, has seen more than his share of these landslides, and estimates 80 over the past three decades. “Tijuana sits on soil that is very young, with steep slopes, ones that are unstable, without well-compacted soil,” said Rosquillas.

About 20 are categorized as major incidents, with Lomas del Rubí among the largest the city has seen. “This is the first landslide where there is clear evidence of what caused it,” he said.

In the case of Lomas del Rubí, scrutiny has fallen on a developer that has been building houses at the foot of the hillside, Grupo Melo. Authorities are looking at whether the company weakened the hillside by making improper cuts at its base. They said the developer is cooperating with the investigation and has worked to shore up the foundation at the city’s request.


City Hall has assembled a team of experts to pinpoint the cause of the landslide, and a preliminary report is expected in the next few days, Alejandro Lomelín, the city’s secretary of urban development and ecology, told reporters on Wednesday.

Lomelín said that the project’s construction permits were in order. But there was no overall “geotechnical study” done of the surrounding area, a large swath of the city whose topography has made it vulnerable to landslides, he said.

Tijuana’s soil conditions “demand surgical precision,” Lomelín said. “You need to tread very carefully so as not to detonate activity.”

A study published in 2014 of hillside instability in Tijuana by a group of Spanish researchers stated that “over 30 percent of the city’s population resides on hillsides where terrain instability is a constant threat and where landslide hazards acquire unpredictable levels.”


Their report in the professional journal “Engineering Failure Analysis,” looked at the collapse of 11 houses in 2010 in the upscale Tijuana neighborhood of Laderas de Monterrey; another 8 buildings suffered significant damage.

Among the study’s conclusions: “Land-use legislation governing the region does not adequately take into account the risks and there are no regulations governing construction on or near slopes.”

Rosquillas, the state civil protection chief, agreed with that assessment. “This landslide should be the watershed, so that there can be very clear, and rigorous rules that prevent developers from building in the few remaining areas of the city’s urban core,” he said. “Because any cut that is made is going to present danger for the upper part of the hillside.”

Like so many other neighborhoods across the city, Lomas del Rubi was settled by squatters. Led by a man named Gilberto Portugal, they arrived in the mid-1980s, and were able to purchase their plots from the landowner, Fraccionadora El Rubí, according to a longtime resident. As they acquired legal title to their properties, the government hooked them up to electricity, running water and sewer connections.


Ulises Cárdenas, who works inspecting aqueducts for the state public utility, CESPT, said he bought his property on Calle Reforma from a brother-in-law.

As the family’s needs grew, so did the house, which expanded to include five bedroom and two bathrooms. His ailing mother-in-law stayed in a room on the second floor. He built a terrace and a front room with a large picture window, where he would drink coffee every morning as the sun rose.

“This is where my children grew up,” he said, momentarily turning away to regain his composure.

While they wait for answers and demand compensation, Cárdenas and his family have found temporary lodging at a house borrowed from a friend. “First and foremost is our lives,” he added. “We thank God that nobody died.”


For those with few alternatives, the city has opened a shelter, but many residents say it is too far away, and they are determined to stay and protect their remaining possessions.

Wilbert Hernández, 30, earned a living collecting scrap metal, but a week ago he lost that job. A friend lets him use the rooms that he shares with the mother of his youngest child and her four older children in a building that is filled with cracks.

Earlier this week, looking out over the destruction down below, Luz Guizar held their 11-month-old daughter. “We don’t have anywhere to go, and money is pretty tight,” she said. “We’re all scared.”

sandra.dibble@sduniontribune.com


@sandradibble

UPDATES:

2:16 p.m.: This story was updated with new information from the Tijuana Civil Protection Office