New California Risk: Superstorm
As if supervolcanoes and earthquakes weren’t enough to worry about, add floods to the list of natural events that could be catastrophic for Californians.
A group of more than 100 scientists and experts say in a new report that California faces the risk of a massive “superstorm” that could flood a quarter of the state’s homes and cause $300 billion to $400 billion in damage. Researchers point out that the potential scale of destruction in this storm scenario is four or five times the amount of damage that could be wrought by a major earthquake.
Such a storm could dump 10 feet of water onto the state in the space of 40 days. Geological evidence shows that storms of this magnitude have occurred in California in the years 212, 440, 603, 1029, 1418, 1605 and 1861. The most recent was so severe the state capital was temporarily moved to San Francisco, and Governor Leland Stanford had to take a rowboat to his own inauguration.
Report at Yahoo, a copy is at Scribd.
BTW, even if you don’t live in California, such a catastrophe would have world-wide repercussions, with California being the world’s eight largest economy.
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It’s going to be a very bumppy ride.
I have heard of the superstorm threat that the west coast could be facing and I have also heard that it has occured before. I think its just a part of a natural cycle of climate on our eart and not to be related with december 21, 2012.
I read this article a few days ago. It really interesting how we are setting up for massive storms. It is absolutely true that if California gets hit this hard, it will have world wide effects. Of course if it is just part of a greater 2012 phenomenon it may be the least of our worries!
I have read the book “the coming global superstorm” and it was very enlightening. I can see that the storms are getting worse, just like the book predicted. They said it was partly cycliclical and partly our fault due to greenhouse gases. Then I read that in China they are building an average of 4 coal fired plants every week. I don’t know if this is true, but it needs to stop. I believe we need to look more to solar and wind to make electricity. I also have heard about a man who wants to use the free power of the ocean waves using buoys to collect the energy. sounded interesting. All I can say lately is i am glad i have a truck with a camper and i know how to camp! We are in for a very bumpy ride indeed. I hope we can all pull together and help one another survive.