Thirty Homes Flee As Malibu Street Vanishes

Broadcast cameras on tripods at a press event — Photo: Microgen / Shutterstock

A sinkhole up to 30 feet deep tore open next to a Malibu mansion linked to actor Nicolas Cage, forcing the city to evacuate 31 homes overnight.

Story Snapshot

Malibu declared a local emergency after a sinkhole opened near Sea Level Drive on September 8, 2026.
The hole grew to roughly 25 to 30 feet deep and 30 by 60 feet wide, cutting off emergency access.
All 31 properties on the street were red-tagged, and residents were evacuated to a shelter at Malibu High School.
City officials blame coastal erosion worsened by high tides and rain from Hurricane Marie.
A broken gas line and utility shutoffs added to the danger as crews worked to secure the area.

Sinkhole Swallows Driveway Near Oceanfront Home

The trouble started early Tuesday, September 8, when a driveway collapsed near 31630 Sea Level Drive in Malibu. City records show crews responded around 11:30 a.m. to the collapse and a gas leak. By evening, the hole had grown into a major hazard that officials say began forming a day earlier, on September 7.

City surveyors measured the sinkhole at 25 to 30 feet deep and 30 by 60 feet wide, according to the emergency proclamation signed that night. The city said the hole posed “imminent danger to the homes and residents along Sea Level Drive” and blocked normal access to the properties.

City Declares Emergency and Orders Evacuations

Malibu’s director of emergency services formally declared a local emergency after consulting with the Los Angeles County Fire Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The declaration cleared the way for the city to close the private road, send evacuation alerts through the Everbridge notification system, and station sheriff’s deputies to go door to door warning residents in person.

By the next morning, the city said all 31 properties on the street had been red-tagged, meaning they were marked unsafe to enter. Officials said the red tags reflected not just the sinkhole itself, but the fact that fire trucks, ambulances, and patrol cars could no longer safely reach the homes in an emergency.

Storm Conditions Made a Bad Situation Worse

Officials tied the collapse to worsening weather. A Coastal Flood Advisory stayed in effect until 11:00 p.m. on September 8, driven by high tides and heavy surf from Hurricane Marie. Forecasters and city alerts both pointed to the storm as the trigger that turned existing coastal erosion into a fast-moving crisis along the bluff.

Southern California Gas crews shut off gas service Tuesday evening after workers found a broken half-inch line near the collapse, aiming to stop further leaks. A local water district also cut service to the area as a safety precaution while crews assessed the damage.

News outlets, including AccuWeather, reported the collapse occurred around 5:45 a.m. that Tuesday, with the city’s emergency declaration following by evening once the scope of the damage became clear. Malibu has faced repeated erosion problems this year, including an earlier closure of a Point Dume beach access road due to similar bluff instability, showing this is not an isolated event for the coastal city.

Celebrity Connection Draws National Attention

Media reports identified the threatened home as belonging to actor Nicolas Cage, whose reported $10.5 million Malibu property sits near the sinkhole. That celebrity link has driven wide national coverage of what would otherwise be a local infrastructure emergency, though the core facts remain the same regardless of who owns the house.

A large sinkhole in Malibu swallowed the driveway and front deck of a house reportedly belonging to the actor Nicolas Cage on Sept. 8. It's believed the hole is a result of large ocean waves that pounded the California coast due to Hurricane Marie. pic.twitter.com/nu2oty38p7

— The Weather Network (@weathernetwork) September 11, 2026

As of the city’s most recent update, crews had made no major overnight changes to the sinkhole’s condition, and the evacuation order remained in place for all 31 properties. The city has not yet published a full engineering report explaining exactly how the bluff failed, though officials point to coastal erosion and the storm’s high surf as the driving forces behind the collapse.