Rancho Palos Verdes residents navigating daily chaos in some areas of the land movement are experiencing a very different holiday season this year.
Karinn Gerard told KNX News’ Nataly Tavidian that while her home is her sanctuary, she’s getting away for a while to recharge and rest.
“I just need to get away from all the noise, the workers, and then I’ll have all the energy I need because I was out in nature and I'm ready to go back at it again,” she said.
The road leading to Gerard’s home closed because of ongoing repair. She described her day-to-day life as an adventure she did not ask for.
“You're trying to rest or you're trying to have a moment of peace. They have no privacy any longer because they took out 300 feet of hedge to put the actual water lines above ground,” she told KNX News’ Nataly Tavidian.
She said she’s constantly educating herself and finding new ways to live and get off the grid.
“Once I hook up my cameras to Starlink… if I'm gone for longer than 30 days, my cameras are not going to work anymore because the batteries will be drained,” she said. "{So what do I do? I figure out how much wattage Starlink is, I add that up and then I order another solar panel. So that's what you have to do to survive.”
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Gerard said it does get to be overwhelming.
“What if the water pipes break? What if there's a movement and a beam falls? What if there's a third thing where there's an explosion somewhere? That's three things all within an hour,” she said. “I get overwhelmed. Give me one with a little bit of space and then I can handle it. But with all of this, that you see out in front that's been going on all of October, all of November…[it’s] hard to get in and out of my driveway. There was an emergency and it was hard for them to get through.”
City leaders said dewatering projects have helped stabilize the land drastically, but still brace for the unknown the rainy season could bring.
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