La Chusa Beach repairs could take five weeks Play

It may take five weeks for the homeowners association at La Chusa Beach to complete repairs on East Sea Level Drive. That's the estimate from the city. 31 houses remain off limits Thursday morning on La Chusa Beach. Families have been relocated to friends or out of town. It's not clear how long the housing closure will be in effect.

Some residents were allowed to walk in Wednesday to retrieve suitcases, feed pets and that sort of thing. The homeowners association at La Chusa Beach owns the roadway, but there's also a public easement on that roadway for beach access for the general public. That's closed now, of course. Heavy equipment continues to be driven in and out, including cement trucks.

The city put out a press release Wednesday saying that the sinkhole and erosion have not significantly expanded. But that assessment could not be independently verified. The city is keeping reporters far away from the repair work.

One person who did get a close look was Jo Giese. She lives in the subdivision and she spoke to the L.A. TV stations: "My concern isn't so much that sinkhole, which is huge and spooky and creepy, but coming out of the sinkhole — and I looked at it this morning, I took some photos of it — is this crack that's coming out of the sinkhole onto the road, and it must go 20 feet. Now what is keeping that sinkhole from expanding into that crack?"