Homes and blocks of flats have been left teetering on the edge of disintegrating cliffs in Pacifica, California as El Niño storms continue to cause coastal erosion. Pacifica is located 15 miles south of San Francisco, and the buildings have been at risk of collapse for years. In January 2010, cliff erosion left one of the buildings leaning over the edge of the cliff, and residents were evacuated. The El Niño weather phenomenon, characterised by a warming of the Pacific Ocean, has also battered South America. Waves of up to five metres (16 feet) tall pounded the coasts of Chile and Peru.
26 January 2016: Uninhabitable apartments, in danger of collapsing into the Pacific Ocean, line Esplanade Avenue in Pacifica, California as El Niño storm erosion eats away at the coastal bluff beneath themReuters
In this gallery, IBTimes UK looks at buildings around the world that have been left on the edge of collapse after landslides, earthquakes, sinkholes and storms.
14 September 2015: A damaged house is seen after a heavy rainfall caused by Typhoon Vamco hit Lingshui Ethnic Li Autonomous County in Hainan Province, ChinaReuters18 July 2009: An aerial view shows the debris of a residential building and a destroyed road in the village of Nachterstedt, about 105 miles south west of Berlin. Three residents were missing after their lakeside home and another building suddenly collapsed into the water. A 350-metre stretch of shoreline gave way next to an old open-cast coal mine converted into a lakeReuters13 June 2014: A luxury lake house is left dangling about 23 metres above Lake Whitney in Texas on the edge of a decaying cliff that had been giving way underneath the structureReuters10 July 2012: A house, with its foundation washed away hangs over a rain-swollen creek at Nyhammar in Dalarna, SwedenReuters25 May 2015: A man walks past a damaged and collapsed five-storey house a month after the 25b April earthquake hit Kathmandu, NepalReuters17 July 2014: People work around a damaged house along the coastal area after strong winds brought by Typhoon Rammasun (locally known as Typhoon Glenda) battered the Baseco compound, Metro Manila, the PhilippinesReuters18 October 2003: A house that was slammed off its foundation piers by the storm surge from Hurricane Isabel sits precariously on a beach in Rodanthe, North Carolina. The storm was one of the worst to bear down on the area in a century, causing an estimated $1bn (£698.4m) in damageReuters23 February 2015: Norio Kimura, 49, who lost his father, wife and daughter in the 11 March 2011 tsunami, walks in front of an earthquake-damaged house inside the exclusion zone in Okuma town, near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plantReuters17 November 2014: A house, badly damaged by flood water from the overflowing Nariva swamp basin following two days of torrential rainfall, sits precariously on the edge of the Manzanilla Mayaro Road on Trinidad's east coastReuters7 July 2014: A toppled house is pictured in the San Marcos region in the north west of Guatemala after a 6.9-magnitude earthquakeReuters12 November 2012: A home that was damaged by Hurricane Sandy is seen in Mantoloking, New JerseyReuters21 March 2011: A seven-storey building, which was under construction, collapsed in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, ChinaReuters27 February 2010: An apartment block leans over in Santiago after a huge magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck Chile, knocking down homes and hospitals and triggering a tsunamiReuters1 November 2010: An aerial view of a large crater that appeared in the early hours in the central German town of Schmalkalden. A huge hole measuring 30 by 40 metres opened up in the middle of a residential estateReuters3 March 2013: Demolition crews and Hillsborough County Fire Department watch as the house where Jeffrey Bush was swallowed by a sinkhole, is demolished in Seffner, Florida. Rescue workers ended their efforts to recover the body of Bush, who disappeared into the sinkhole that swallowed his bedroom while he sleptReuters3 October 2007: A massive 200x240 feet section of collapsed road is pictured in the Mount Soledad neighbourhood of La Jolla near San Diego, California. A landslide damaged or destroyed six homes and forced the evacuation of at least 20 othersGetty31 May 2010: A giant sinkhole in Guatemala City around 65ft (20m) across and 100ft (30m) deep suddenly opened up, swallowing a three-storey factoryReuters
