SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- Seven buildings in North Beach have been evacuated and red-tagged after heavy rain sent a portion of Telegraph Hill tumbling towards Broadway Street.
Overnight rain that at times turned to hail loosened a section of hillside on the block between Kearny Street and Montgomery Street. At 3:17 a.m., it gave way with a loud rumbling that woke resident Max Herrera from a sound sleep.
What started as a “slowly progressing rumbling,” he told KCBS reporter Bob Melrose, “got louder and louder and then it just, the hillside, when it hit the building, it sounded like a bomb went off. It was pretty loud.”
No one was injured, but he and almost 150 residents of his building and another apartment building, as well as the late night workers at Showgirls, a night club next door, were forced to flee.
One of the buildings evacuated overnight was a 45-unit apartment building on Vallejo Street now perched near a large crater on the edge of Telegraph Hill. Forty of the evacuees have been given shelter at a Red Cross facility on Mason Street. City geologists have begun a 24-hour assessment to determine whether the hillside has stabilized.
A red tag indicates no one will be allowed in the buildings until the structural integrity is evaluated. Mayor Gavin Newsom and other city officials will host a news conference at 5 p.m. Work on the affected area could begin as soon as tonight.
Last year, a slide in a different area of Telegraph Hill sent rocks and debris hurtling onto Sansome Street.
(jro)
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KCBS' Holly Quan reports
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