Last week one of our neighbours came by, a neighbour who lives across and considerably down the street from where we live, but whom we know fairly well. My husband was outside, cutting the grass on the front lawn, and two other neighbours who live even further down the street and on the other side of our home, had stopped to talk with him. The neighbour who last joined the threesome lives directly next to one of the three houses grouped together which were evacuated several weeks ago by order of the city in recognition of their perilous condition whereby the slumping hill the backyard of their homes back onto was crumbling, and affecting their property and potentially the foundations of their homes.

She had noticed she said, that a few days ago large cracks in the soil had been appearing, similar to the ones that had been seen before the hillside had begun its slide into the ravine. Living right next to the quarantined houses she and her husband had been informed there was a possibility that they too would have to vacate their house, but for the time being the city and the engineering company they had hired were waiting to see whether further deterioration would occur. With the new presence of yet another warning, she said, it now appeared more likely they would have to leave. Stunningly sad and alarming news.

The fact is, though we thought that with the incessant downpours now in decline the dangers would also decline, that appears not to be the case. It seems that a hillside opposite the one that had originally begun slumping too was sliding into the ravine. And that has affected homes on another street nearby where houses also back on to the ravine.

Today, while I was doing my usual Monday house-cleaning the doorbell rang. Outside was a young woman, casually dressed, with a noteboard and some electronic equipment. She introduced herself as someone tasked by the engineering company representing the municipality, to take electronic measurements on the exterior of all the homes on the two streets affected by the landslides. To determine, if in the future any kind of damage occurs, whether it resulted from the work being undertaken by the construction crews working in the ravine.

They are, of course, nowhere near our house, let alone close to the street. Perhaps this represents an excess of caution; at the very least the municipality and the construction company performing due diligence to ensure that the work they're undertaking with heavy machinery doesn't impact deleteriously on nearby homes. It was entirely optional for the homeowner to agree to allow their property to be examined for any structural faults that might be present before the work is fully undertaken. And to decide whether they would permit an electronic review of the walls of their home from the interior as well as the exterior.

With the use of a small, hand-held camera, obviously a very particular engineering device that had ten hours' worth of memory whose function was to assess structural integrity, the young woman went through our house, checking every floor, then went outside to do the same to the exterior. A completely sobering experience, in total.

On the positive side, I drew her attention to the flowering magnolia tree in our garden, a note of bright beauty against a blue sky on a weather-perfect day.