Tuesday’s record rainfall caused a chunk of Telegraph Hill to simply plop down on the street, and geologists and Public Works are busily assessing whether the homes above the hill are safe with another round of rain coming Thursday.

The record rainfall Tuesday certainly created far scarier situations in the North Bay than it did here in SF. But we did not go without incident here, as KTVU reported Tuesday night that a giant mudslide hit Telegraph Hill at Union and Sansome streets. As seen in the segment below, rocks and a ton of shrubbery were strewn about one lane of Sansome Street, which had to be closed. The mudslide happened about 400 feet up a hill there, and there are households at the top of that hill.

The SF Fire Department announced at 7:15 Tuesday night that “A mudslide occurred at 6:22 PM at Sansome and Union Street, affecting the street and surrounding area. No injuries are reported at this time.” And as of early Wednesday afternoon, 511 data shows that Sansome Street has fully reopened.


A Wednesday morning follow-up report from KRON4 says evacuations from those Telegraph Hill homes were not necessary. There was no damage to anything except the steel netting and fences on the hill, which thankfully did their job. And again, no injuries were reported last night or this morning.


Geologists and SF Public Works personnel inspected the site Wednesday morning, and cleaned up the bike lane and the side of the street that was closed. That site actually had been evacuated during heavy rains in 2007.

We’ll hope the geologists and Public Works staff are correct on this, because another round of rain is expected to hit SF on Thursday.

Related: Home Slides Into Russian River as Sonoma Sees Flooding Impacts [SFist]

Image: Google Street View