‘We’ve got to get this debris cleaned up’

SW Burlingame Place residents trying to sort out landslide’s liability issues

By Shasta Kearns Moore

The Southwest Community Connection, Nov 8, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (3 Reader comments)

Shasta Kearns Moore / SW Community Connection

Homeowner Shan Hemphill stands on his deck, which now overlooks what remains of the Hendrickson and Chou residences. "All I want is everybody's homes fixed," Hemphill said, adding: "We've got to get the debris cleaned up."

Enter Shan Hemphill’s command center.

A section of his kitchen counter in Southwest Portland is covered with business cards from news outlets, engineers, utility companies, as well as state and city employees. His phone rings constantly as he shows a reporter and his insurance adjuster around his virtually unscathed house.

But, walk out to his deck that used to overlook the his neighbors’ rose garden and the sight is devastating.

“I can’t even imagine what it’s like in hurricane areas where they have miles of this,” Hemphill said.

Hemphill’s house was a casualty of the Oct. 8 landslide that swept away a house on Southwest Burlingame Place, scattering its remains down a muddy slope. Pieces of the house crashed into other homes, damaging some beyond repair.

The few distinguishable features left of the Hendrickson home are large slabs of concrete that used to be the foundation, silver heating ducts, and a large pile of broken wood, along with most of the hillside that used to lie beneath it. The several hundred tons of debris now rest against the Chous’ residence — their brand-new Acura just barely visible in the garage underneath the home.

“It’s been a week and half a day,” Hemphill said that Wednesday. “Nothing’s happened except for a lot of people standing around talking about it.”

Eventually, on Oct. 17, someone did do something about it.

Paralyzed by unresponsive insurance companies, the property owners asked the city to hire a contractor to help stabilize the hillside.

The contractor put up plastic sheeting on the site, as well as a temporary drainage system, to prevent water from causing more slippage.

Who's at fault?

The neighbors are working with their insurance companies to determine who is responsible for what damage, but many experts are saying that the exact cause of the landslide may never been known and the insurance companies are unlikely to pay anything.

Ron Fredrickson is an insurance expert with the state’s Department of Consumer and Business Services who advocates for consumers battling with insurance companies. Fredrickson met with the affected families evening Dec. 13 and said there was a sense of despair as homeowner’s policies typically do not to pay for earth movement.

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