Residents on a hillside street in Malibu, California, evacuated their homes Wednesday after a sinkhole opened near actor Nicolas Cage’s property and continued to widen throughout the day, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department. No injuries have been reported, but officials shut down the road as engineers began assessing the extent of the ground failure.
The sinkhole reportedly formed overnight and grew several feet in diameter by midmorning, swallowing sections of pavement and prompting a precautionary evacuation order for at least half a dozen nearby residences. Malibu, a coastal community known for its steep bluffs and multimillion-dollar homes, has a long history of erosion, landslides and unstable hillside terrain, particularly following periods of heavy rain.
What Triggered the Ground Failure
Los Angeles County Public Works officials said preliminary indications point to a combination of subsurface water intrusion and aging drainage infrastructure beneath the roadway. Southern California experienced above-average rainfall earlier this year, and geologists have repeatedly warned that saturated hillsides in the Santa Monica Mountains remain vulnerable to sudden collapse even months after storms pass.
“These coastal slopes are geologically young and unstable to begin with,” one county geotechnical engineer told local reporters at the scene, noting that a full investigation would be needed to determine whether a broken water main, natural erosion, or a combination of factors caused the collapse. Crews have not yet determined whether the sinkhole poses a direct structural threat to the Cage residence itself, though its proximity to the home has drawn national attention to what would otherwise be a routine, if serious, infrastructure incident.
Evacuations and Emergency Response
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and fire crews cordoned off the affected block, urging residents to stay away as the ground continued to shift. Utility crews were dispatched to check for damaged gas and water lines in the area, a standard precaution when sinkholes threaten buried infrastructure.
- The affected roadway remains closed to all traffic.
- At least six homes near the sinkhole have been evacuated as a precaution.
- No injuries or structural collapses have been confirmed as of Wednesday evening.
- Geotechnical crews are expected to conduct soil stability tests before allowing residents to return.
Malibu city officials said they were coordinating with county emergency management to monitor the sinkhole’s growth and determine when it will be safe to reopen the street. Similar incidents have occurred in the region before; in 2023, storm-driven landslides closed sections of the Pacific Coast Highway for weeks.
A High-Profile Address Draws Scrutiny
While sinkholes and slope failures are not unusual in Malibu, the involvement of a celebrity residence has amplified coverage of the incident. Cage, an Academy Award-winning actor known for decades of film work, has increasingly embraced a broader range of projects in recent years, including a shift toward television that he once resisted. As Cage previously explained, it took his son showing him a scene from Breaking Bad during the pandemic to change his mind about the medium.
Representatives for Cage have not issued a public statement regarding the sinkhole, and it remains unclear whether the actor was home at the time the ground began to give way. NarwhalTV has reached out to representatives for comment.
Malibu’s Ongoing Battle With Its Terrain
The incident adds to a string of recent hazards affecting the Malibu area, a region prized for its ocean views but increasingly scrutinized for the risks that come with building on unstable coastal bluffs. Earlier this year, the community also grappled with a separate emergency when a mountain lion attacked an 11-year-old child, underscoring the area’s uneasy coexistence with wildlife and natural hazards alike.
County officials say they will continue monitoring the sinkhole over the coming days, with soil engineers likely to recommend either reinforcement work or a longer-term redesign of the drainage system beneath the road. Until then, residents on the block remain barred from returning home.
What Happens Next
Los Angeles County typically requires a geotechnical report before reopening roads affected by sinkholes, a process that can take anywhere from several days to multiple weeks depending on the severity of the underlying damage. Officials have not provided a timeline for reopening the street or lifting evacuation orders.
“We want to make sure this is fully stabilized before anyone goes back in,” a county fire official said at the scene. “Right now, safety is the only priority.”
NarwhalTV will continue to follow developments as more information becomes available from Los Angeles County officials and Malibu city representatives.
