SAN DIEGO -- San Diego officials ordered evacuations Wednesday morning after a large section of road buckled and homes began sliding down a hillside.

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The hole in the four-lane roadway was about 50 yards wide and roughly 12 feet deep.

No injuries were reported in the upscale neighborhood, where the typical home is valued at well about $1 million.

There was heavy damage to the roadway in front of five homes on the street. Several of the houses were also slipping down the hill, and at least one of them was heavily damaged.

The fire department had at least 100 firefighters in the area, and there are 50 police officers on the scene as well. The Urban Search & Rescue team also was called in.

City engineer Robert Hawk said officials had been watching the area for the last three weeks. City officials said Monday they were moving quickly to prevent catastrophic loss. They sent letters two weeks ago to alert residents and began knocking on doors Monday.

Initial cracking began in middle of the street, according to Hawk. Over the next few weeks, it developed into a pattern that affected four homes on Soledad Mountain Road. At about 9 a.m. on Tuesday, city workers in the area heard cracking noises from houses and evacuated residents.

About two hours after the collapse, the situation appeared stable, said City Attorney Michael Aguirre.

"It doesn't appear to be any additional cracking at least at this point. This is a dynamic situation so we're not able to say for certain that it won't become more of a problem," Aguirre said.

San Diego Fire Department spokesman Maurice Luque said officials were not sure how many homes would be evacuated, although 20 had been evacuated already.

Utility officials also said thousands of customers had lost electricity service and gas leaks had been reported.

At least 14 homes in the area also were without water, officials said.

Retired San Diego State University geology professor Pat Abbott told NBC station KNSD-TV that there have been periodic landslides in the area since 1961. He said that all repairs that have been done have just been "Band-Aids" and that the only way to truly fix the problem is to tear down all the homes in the area and start over.

Abbot also said that the problem would likely happen again with the next big earthquake on the Rose Canyon Fault.

At least three significant hill slides have occurred in the area between 1961 and 1994, including a major failure in 1961 that destroyed seven homes under construction.