As media, and others, relish socking it to California --- keeping residents and public officials on edge --- with periodic predictions of earthquakes and droughts, now comes a study (two years in the making) that the Golden State faces a catastrophic storm that could last for more than 40 days and dump 10 feet of water on the state, notes Grumpy Editor.
Forty days and 120 inches of rain?
That certainly would curb the continuous talk of extended periods of dry weather.
But don’t be alarmed. It’s not in the seven-day forecast.
The watery outlook seems to be something right out of a Hollywood horror movie thriller (perhaps in splashy 3-D) rather than from the U.S. Geological Survey which issued the warning after input from scientists who relied on what came out of a computer model.
Climate researchers caution that such a superstorm is hypothetical but not improbable.
Still, while not indicating factors or pinpointing areas (desert, mountain or urban) in the calculations, the report precisely puts damage at $300 billion to $400 billion.
“We think this event happens once every 100 to 200 years or so, which puts it in the same category as our big San Andreas earthquakes,” according to Lucy Jones, USGS scientist.
Others label it as a "500-year storm.”
California now “has the potential for the biggest rainfall events in the country,” mentions Jones.
Hundreds of local and national news stories in recent months have focused on drought conditions in California --- low reservoirs, vegetables drying up in the fields after lack of water to irrigate them, lower river levels, a curb on backyard watering, and such.
However, just last month a series of storms broke records in California, dumping up to 17 inches of rain over three days in one section of Los Angeles County.
Perhaps emergency planners, with the USGS report in hand, will call for more reservoirs, levees, bridges and flood control construction in the financially-smacked state that already is deeply in the red.
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