With more rain on the way, people who live along the San Clemente coast are keeping a very close eye on the hillsides, especially in one neighborhood where four apartment buildings are still red tagged.
NBCLA learned its up to the individual property owners to hire their building inspectors to figure out whether these buildings are safe to occupy. There is a possibility they may never be safe, according to experts.
California needs the rain but it's a tough sell for the people who live in the four apartment buildings in the 1500 block of Buena Vista, who can't return home any time soon.
"You can see that from that one pool structure -- it's just jarring to see -- jumps out," said San Clemente Chris Duncan.
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Last week's storm triggered a landslide in the area.
San Clemente city officials say the land beneath the apartments stayed put with the weekend drizzle. There's been no sliding or sifting.
But Tuesday's storm is expected to bring on much more.
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"It's certainly possible that some of these residences are beyond repair, or least in the condition where it doesn't make sense to continue to have people living in them but we're going to try to take the optimistic path and give the building owners every possibility to establish that it is safe," Duncan said.
The mayor says if property owners can prove their buildings are safe to re-enter, tenants can return. But geological science experts NBCLA spoke with say "proceed with caution."
"Three main factors that control how likely a landslide is -- that's the rock type, how steep slope is, and the amount of water," said Nate Onderdonk, CSU Long Beach geological sciences professor. "Here you're looking at a bad combination."
"I feel horrible for these people who have a lot invested, and have these gorgeous ocean views, you now. It's one of those things, like living in the mountains, you have the fire season," resident John Rees said. "You gotta take the good with the bad."
Some of that bad came last week when property owners discovered insurance does not cover landslides. It's going to be up to their building inspectors to determine the next steps.
