COEUR d'ALENE - Robert Kobrick started to notice something wrong on Jan. 17.

It was during the heavy rainfall, he said, that he saw the soil slipping away beside his hillside home at 1793 South Regatta Way.

Since then, the ground hasn't stopped giving way.

"You know how they say you can hear corn grow? It was like you could see it falling," he said.

On Thursday, he pointed to where a 30-inch high gully was carved out, leaving a gap between his house and the road a few feet away.

"It's gone from being perfectly level, to this," he said.

It was on Tuesday that the water line snapped, he said.

"That's when we moved out," he said.

Now the home where Kobrick has lived with his wife and daughter is literally falling apart. The cement foundation in the basement is split, Kobrick said, the walls and ceiling cracked.

The house, located on a steep slope above Silver Beach Road, is now at an angle.

"According to a geotechnical engineer, his estimation is it will never be a house again. The land beneath it just isn't stable," he said.

Kootenai County Building and Planning Department staff inspected Kobrick's house on Tuesday, and posted an orange order on the structure declaring it as unsafe and to remain vacated until the problem is resolved.

The street had been clogged with county emergency vehicles, Kobrick said.

"It literally looked like a crime scene," he said.

Kobrick, who has owned the home since 1999, believes the foundation problems are due to poor storm water management from houses higher up the slope.

The county is looking into it, he said.

"The county has been moving very fast," he said. "It just takes a long time to make assessments and determinations. This isn't a black and white scenario."

Scott Clark, director of the Building and Planning Department, could not be reached on Thursday.

The county sent out a prepared statement on Wednesday reporting that homeowners in the area are being contacted about the situation.

The area has seen drainage problems before, Kobrick said, adding that Regatta Way completely flooded two years ago.

The geotechnical engineer, who has only walked the house so far, predicted the house could eventually collapse and fall down the cliff, Kobrick said.

"Not until the big runoff this spring," he said.

What happens before then?

"We have 100 questions for every answer. We know very little at this time," Kobrick said. "There's nothing official yet, no drilling has been done, no core studies. Nobody knows how bad it really is."

It's not good, though.

Kobrick, who manages commercial property, was surprised to learn that his homeowner's insurance doesn't cover ground movement or foundation settling.

"You pay insurance, and they tell you, 'Well, good luck with that,'" he said.

Kobrick and his family, who he preferred not to name, "have another place" where they are staying, he said. He declined to say where.

On Thursday, he was loading boxes of last-minute materials into the back of his car. The family had removed furniture and other big items earlier in the week, he said.

"What we're presently going through, we'll survive it," he said. "We've had so much going on so fast, we haven't had time to be suicidal yet."