Landslide could force Pittsburgh-area families out of their homes
MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) — A landslide may force Moon Township families out of their homes.
On Tuesday, the two homeowners got word from Moon Township that a township engineer assessed the area and strongly advised them to evacuate either Tuesday or Wednesday for their safety. Their homes are approximately 20 feet from the landslide.
About two weeks ago, the landslide closed down part of Beaver Grade Road below the Sonoma Ridge development on Stags Leap Lane. The landslide has only gotten worse since then.
The hill has slid away so much that two of these houses in the neighborhood are at risk of sliding. One of the homeowners just bought his home with his wife a year and a half ago. It's the couple's first home and they do not know what they're going to do.
"Me and my wife, this is our first home," homeowner Ranjith Kundarapu said. "I don't know, we have no homes. There is no support from anyone. We don't have information or anything on what's going on. It's been more than a week. PennDOT is doing the job, and we don't get any information from anyone on what's going to happen next."
PennDOT is responsible for Beaver Grade Road underneath the landslide. Neighbors said they got a letter telling them to come up with a plan to fix it, but these homeowners say they don't how to do that.
Insurance companies said there is no coverage to help with this, as landslides are not part of any policy.
But two state representatives have introduced a bill to help families like these pay for landslide repairs, adding coverage to an existing program through the state's Department of Environmental Protection.
"If you have a home and it is located somewhere that is prone to landslides, which is basically almost every homeowner in Western Pa., then that is something that needs to be addressed," state Rep. Valerie Gaydos said.
"I see people's lives devastated," state Rep. Emily Kinkead said. "All of a sudden, you have a house that you're supposed to be able to build generational wealth with and it's gone."
Moon Township Supervisor Jim Vitale said the township's doing whatever it can to get these people some help. KDKA-TV asked him if other people who live here could eventually be in the same situation.
"That's a question for the engineers," supervisor Jim Vitale said. "This one does look like it's moving and there's a lot of dirt that's gone over the hill and it looks like it keeps moving."