Students living at 6747 Del Playa Drive in Isla Vista had a rude awakening Tuesday morning.
"I woke up to banging on the door. It was the police saying we need to leave. I had just woke up so I was so confused," said Nathan Lemus, UCSB freshman.
Lemus says after waking up the rest of his roommates, they all evacuated. But this isn’t the first time they’ve been forced out of their home. Last semester, these same six students lost everything when they say their apartment caught fire due to an electrical malfunction.
"This is our second house that’s been destroyed and it's hard to do school in houses that keep getting destroyed," said Mateo Spencer, UCSB freshman.
Spencer adds that on top of everything, they are also missing class.
"We all have school today and had to miss school for this and we still don’t really know what’s going on," Spencer added.
The building, for now, is safe, but the balcony has been red-tagged.
Carl Lindberg with Santa Barbara County Planning & Development explains that the partial deck collapse was caused by erosion after recent storms, adding that several buildings in the area have been reconstructed farther from the cliff edge.
"In the past five years, about 12 buildings have actually been cut back. They’ll actually saw the building off and relocate it further from the bluffs," Lindberg said.
The last time a balcony fell off a bluff was in 2019.
Lindberg adds that this type of collapse could become more frequent.
"Property owners should expect that this can happen and be very vigilant about it," he said.
Fortunately, this time, no injuries were reported.
After a few hours of evacuation, the students were allowed to return to their apartment building.
