Dramatic drone footage shows Pacifica homes teetering on brink of collapse

A worker looks over a cliff as demolition crews tear down an apartment building in Pacifica. Storm-driven coastal erosion prompted city officials to mark the building as uninhabitable in 2016.

Jan. 27, 2016 2:50 PM PT

Dramatic footage captured by drones has put more focus on a cliffside neighborhood in Pacifica that is threatened by erosion.

In the wake of several El Niño storms, several buildings on Esplanade Avenue in the San Francisco suburb are teetering on the cliff’s edge as other portions of the bluff appear to have disintegrated into the crashing waves below.

City Manager Lorie Tinfow declared a local emergency after the storms not only wreaked havoc on the cliffside, but also caused damage to Pacifica Pier and the Milagra Watershed. Rains also triggered the failure of a seawall along Beach Boulevard and Santa Maria Avenue in the coastal Bay Area city, about 15 miles south of San Francisco.