SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- More than 100 homes in an upscale San Diego community were evacuated after a landslide about 60 yards wide pulled the earth from beneath a three-lane road and some of the multimillion-dollar homes that adorn it.

Gina Yarbrough sent this picture of the road that collapsed in Wednesday's landslide.

Mayor Jerry Sanders declared a state of emergency, asking California and the federal government to help the La Jolla community recover from the Wednesday landslide. As of Thursday morning, he had already received offers of aid from legislators, the governor's office and the White House, he said.

Officials warned for at least two weeks that the ground was shifting beneath the hillside community along Soledad Mountain Road.

Holes were drilled into the unsettled hillside to investigate the cause and magnitude of the shift, which earlier ruptured a water line, and according to some media reports, began cracking Soledad Mountain Road in July.

On Wednesday, a 20-foot-deep chasm opened beneath the road and homes. Holli Weld told San Diego's KGTV that she was walking her son to preschool when the street collapsed.  Watch a resident recall how he had to grab his dogs and run »

"The street was sinking before our eyes," she said.

Authorities told KGTV that most residents were at work and only seven people were in their homes when the landslide occurred.

Evacuated homeowner Russell Moore told CNN he remembers hearing the earth "groan" in what he called a "slow avalanche."

"The asphalt that should be under my feet was 8 feet in the air," Moore said. "We watched the trees snapping and cracking and more boulders come down to our feet and we were witnessing this move."  See photos of the hole the landslide left in La Jolla »

At least 111 homes were evacuated, but Sanders said residents would be allowed to return to 75 of those houses by early Thursday morning. Several homes were damaged and at least one was destroyed, according to media reports.

Nine homes are "red tagged," meaning no one is allowed to enter them, and 27 more are "yellow tagged," which means residents can return for necessities, but cannot stay, Sanders said.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the landslide downed power lines and caused a minor gas leak. More than 2,400 customers were briefly left without electricity, but most residents had their power restored by Thursday, KGTV reported. The Red Cross opened a shelter at La Jolla High School.

Deputy city engineer Robert Hawk told the Union-Tribune that the hillside has slowly been slipping for years because the soil is unstable. Landslide incidents in the neighborhood date back to the 1960s, Hawk told the newspaper.

Pat Abbott, a retired geological sciences professor at San Diego State University, told the Union-Tribune that Mount Soledad is made up of weak layers of rock and that the culprit in the landslide is nature.

"Gravity pulling on the incline is pulling down masses of earth and those masses of earth have houses on top of them," Abbott told the paper. "It's a geologically bad site and should not have been built on to begin with." E-mail to a friend
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question: What did one resident say?, answer: "The street was sinking before our eyes," | question: what kind of aid?, answer: community recover from | question: What city declared a state of emergency?, answer: SAN DIEGO, | question: What was the name of the one evacuated resident who made the statement "We watched the trees snapping and cracking"?, answer: Russell Moore | question: What was snapping?, answer: trees | question: When can residents return to evacuated homes?, answer: early Thursday morning. | question: Who declared a state of emergency?, answer: Mayor Jerry Sanders | question: when can residents return home?, answer: by early Thursday morning. | question: What  was shifting?, answer: multimillion-dollar homes | question: what number of homes were evacuated?, answer: More than 100 | question: What did the mayor of San Diego declare?, answer: a state of emergency, | question: Who watched the trees snapping and cracking?, answer: Russell Moore | question: What had officials spent weeks investigating?, answer: that the ground was shifting beneath the hillside community | question: What were officials investigating in the area?, answer: landslide | question: What caused officials to investigate the earth, which seem to have been shifting in the area for weeks?, answer: landslide | question: Who decalared the state of emergency?, answer: Mayor Jerry Sanders | question: What did they see snaping and cracking?, answer: trees | question: On which Thursday will the mayor allow the residents to return to 75 of the 111 evacuated homes?, answer: early | question: What did one evacuated resident say?, answer: "The street was sinking before our eyes," | question: What did one evacuated resident watch?, answer: trees snapping and cracking and more boulders come down to our feet | question: When can residents return to 75 of the 111 evacuated homes?, answer: early Thursday morning. | question: Who declares state of emergency?, answer: Mayor Jerry Sanders | question: Which mayor declares a state of emergency?, answer: Jerry Sanders | question: What did the mayor declare?, answer: Jerry Sanders declared a state of emergency,