Terranea Resort gives back with Thanksgiving dinners to landslide-impacted residents

 

For the Terranea Resort, it was about being a good neighbor.

The luxury resort, with the help of officials from the City of Rancho Palos Verdes, community organizations and dozens of volunteers, helped cook and deliver more than 200 turkey dinners — with all the Thanksgiving fixings — to residents hit hard by the recent land movement on Thursday, Nov. 28.

“These (homes) are in those neighborhoods and those streets that have no power, no gas,” Terranea President Ralph Grippo said during a phone interview. “We’re excited to show our appreciation for them as our neighbors and be a good neighbor.”

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More than 40 volunteers, many area residents, gathered in Terranea’s loading dock at 12:30 p.m. to assemble 250 Thanksgiving meals.  Then volunteers set out in 30 cars to deliver the meals to homes in the 680-acre Greater Portuguese Bend Landslide Complex, which had their power and gas shut off beginning in September.

Among the volunteers:  RPV Mayor John Cruikshank and Councilmember Paul Seo.

“When you hear about people who have fissures in their homes and no power or gas, you think about what you can do,” said Marie Chura of the Council of Homeowners Associations and an area resident not impacted by the landslides.

“There’s already been an effort to serve weekly meals to these people so they don’t have to use their generators,” she said, fighting back tears. “But this is just one more way, especially on Thanksgiving, to be able to help these people.”

Life for those in the landslide complex has been upended for months, ever since the earth beneath them began shifting because of consecutive deluges the last two winters.

The ongoing movement has altered the landscape in Rancho Palos Verdes, with the historic Wayfarers Chapel dismantled and in search for a new home,  Palos Verdes Drive South needing continual repairs, miles of hiking trails closed and dozens of homes damaged.

Initially, about 280 homes in the 680-acre Greater Portuguese Bend Landslide Complex, as well as a smattering of properties in then northern area of Rolling Hills, had their power and gas shutoff in early September because the ongoing landslide was stressing infrastructure, utility companies said — making it unsafe to continue providing those services.

City geologist Mike Phipps, though, offered some good news at a recent RPV council meeting, saying that the land movement has abated in some areas because it’s been dry in recent months. But the land has not stopped moving completely, according to Phipps and city staffers. Because of the slow down, the city has been urging Southern California Edison and Southern California Gas Co. to start turning the utilities back on — especially since winter is around the corner.

The county, state and federal governments, meanwhile, have offered some relief, including grants from the Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn’s office and a $42 million FEMA home buyout program.

And late last month, Southern California Edison restored power to 28 homes late last month.

But still, as of last week, about 260 residential SCE customers were still without power across Rancho Palos Verdes and Rolling Hills and 232 lacked gas, according to SCE and Southern California Gas Co. officials.

And lacking power and gas makes it nearly impossible to cook any hot meal — let alone Thanksgiving.

That’s why Terranea stepped in to help.

“It’s disheartening with what’s happened to our neighbors just down the street,” Grippo said.

Mayor Cruikshank and his wife, Jennifer, helped with the dinner packaging on Thursday. They were joined by Councilmembers Barbara Ferraro and Paul Seo, as well as City Manager Ara Mihranian.

“Our local businesses have stepped up in time and need,” Cruikshank said in an interview earlier in the week. “We appreciate Terranea and all the businesses that have done so much for our residents in the landslide area.”

Volunteers from the RPV Council of Homeowners Associations, Rotary Club of Palos Verdes Peninsula, Palos Verdes Peninsula Association of REALTORS, St. Peter’s by the Sea Presbyterian Church and other community members distributed meals on Thanksgiving.

The Rotary Club of Palos Verdes Peninsula’s “Mend the Bend” relief effort has provided weekly dinners from local restaurants to residents who have had their gas and/or electricity turned off because of the unprecedented land movement.

In recent months, Rotary has hosted around seven meals for 200 residents on Wednesday nights at Ladera Linda Community Center, the organization’s president, Lindsey Glass said in an interview earlier this week. The next one is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 4. The food that day will be donated by the Red Onion in Rolling Hills Estates.

“The most important thing is knowing that people care about them,” Glass said, “and that (we) are thinking about them through this holiday season.”

Volunteer Bill Foster delivered meals to Kent and Debra Attridge, who’ve lived on Sweetbay Road in the Portuguese Bend area for more than eight years.

Their home has suffered multiple internal cracks in walls and a damaged retaining wall. It’s come close to being yellow-tagged by the city, said Kent, wearing a baseball cap that read “Portuguese Bend — Bend Don’t Break.”  The hat just showed up in the mail one day, Kent said, and he has no idea who sent it.

“Of course, gas and electricity have been cut off and we replaced our gas stove with an electric two-burner and an air fryer,” Kent said, “and we installed solar panels.”

Amid the challenges at home, the couple was eager to enjoy a good, no-stress Thanksgiving dinner.

“We’re going to enjoy this very much, said Kent while holding his Thanksgiving meals. “It’s a bright spot in a real lousy year so we really appreciate the efforts that have been made to keep us all happy.”

“This is such a jewel,” said Debra, amid tears, “for them to do this.”

Howard Freshman contributed to this report