At the Nicolas Cage sinkhole in Malibu, El Nio fears alter the good vibes mood

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Set us as preferred As the waves bashed the coast this week, boulders smashed into the piles of Mitchell Leib’s Malibu home, plucking them like a “guitar string” and shaking his house.That, along with news of a massive sinkhole opening up about seven miles away, has the man worried about the house he’s lived in for 10 years.

Standing outside a shopping center in Malibu on Thursday afternoon, Leib, 67, checked a tide chart to see when the water would be low enough for him to even be able to see the damage to his house.After days of high tides and the remnants of Hurricane Marie battering his home, Leib said his wife has asked if they can sell the house and move elsewhere.He’s not entirely opposed.

“We’re looking to have peace and quiet in our lives,” Leib said.“Not fear.” Fear is exactly what was struck in some Malibu residents since early Tuesday, when the sinkhole opened up in front of a beachside property owned by actor Nicolas Cage.

By the day’s end, the hole was about 25 feet deep and 30 by 60 feet wide.Most residents on the street have been ordered to evacuate, with seven homes red-tagged due to hazardous conditions and an additional 24 red-tagged because emergency vehicles wouldn’t be able to access them in an emergency, city officials have said.

Not everybody appears to be quite as worried as Leib, or at least not everybody is showing it.Former Malibu Mayor Andy Stern’s house was one of those ordered to evacuate because emergency vehicles can’t access it.

Stern, who is a real estate agent, said he thinks the sinkhole down the street was a one-off incident caused by a combination of a burst water pipe and the waves, and not something that is necessarily a harbinger of unsolvable problems to come.The city of Malibu said the sinkhole was “caused by coastal erosion from high waves and tide...