Multi-million home mere feet and inches away from disaster

Includes video report

By Kate Northrop

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — $2 billion Powerball lottery winner Edwin Castro's Hollywood Hills mansion was just mere inches away from being bowled over by a landslide this week.

It was a very close call for lottery billionaire Castro's $25.5 million Hollywood Hills paradise, which just narrowly missed being crushed by a landslide.

The effects of a storm this week reached all the way up into luxurious Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, where one of Castro's next-door neighbors was not so lucky. The deteriorating hillside buried half their home in dirt and mud.

The house's residents were devastated by the news last Wednesday night and were just days away from moving in, the homeowner told KTLA. The property was under construction for renovations at the time of the landslide, and now this will further set the family back.

One neighbor captured footage of the landslide on their phone.

"The hill is giving, and it's making all sorts of noises, like it's cracking," the neighbor is heard saying on video. Right after, a huge chunk of loose mud and dirt broke from the hillside and hit the house with a crack.

Another neighbor, David Marvisi, told reporters that they saw the landslide happen before their eyes. He's lived across the street for 21 years and has witnessed "some crumbling," but he has never seen damage like this before.

"We were home yesterday, and suddenly we heard a bang, and we came outside," Marvisi recounted. "We saw all this dirt come down at five o' clock in the afternoon."

Marvisi believes the damages could cost around half a million dollars, only about $50,000 for the house itself and large majority for clearing out the debris and renovating the hillside on his property to bring it up to code.

Firefighters arrived at the home shortly after the landslide. Officials red tagged the house, which indicates a property that is unsafe for occupancy. The homeowner told KTLA that he hopes that the city or county will help shoulder the cost to remove the debris and repair his home.

"There's no insurance [to] cover this, no. No way you can get any insurance to cover that," Marvisi said with certainty, gesturing to the destroyed home.

Residents still worry about the possibility of further damage still to come as a result of the storm. Safety officials have been inspecting the surrounding area and houses, but no other homes are affected as of now.

"You have to be very careful," Marvisi continued. "You gotta know what you're getting into, 'cuz this Mother Nature can cost you some money."

VIDEO: Watch the report

Watch on Rumble

(Click to display full-size in gallery)$2 billion Powerball lottery winner Edwin Castro's Hollywood Hills mansion (pictured center) was just mere inches away from being bowled over by a landslide this week.

(Click to display full-size in gallery)The neighbor's home was not so lucky, having been covered more than half-way from the landslide.