With much of the news being about water shortages, droughts, and wildfires, it seems odd to think that California could soon be subject to massive flooding, but a recent study has shown the risks of a megaflood hitting the state has doubled, and the effects could be enormous, as reported by The Guardian, The Washington Post and CNN. Caused by sequences of strong storms that rapidly dump huge volumes of water which can overwhelm infrastructure, the damage to California from a megaflood can be enormous, with the last recorded one in 1862 leaving the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys under water for weeks. A similar event now could result in 100 inches of rain being dropped on the state, with major highways being washed out, and the costs to repair or rebuild exceeding those of major earthquakes.
It’s already been noted that California has found itself under considerable strain from the overlapping of disasters, and a megaflood layers another potential thread on top of it, making emergency management critical. Says Dr. Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the Institute of the Environment & Sustainability and an author on the study, to The Guardian, “Our goal in doing this work is to get ahead of the curve as much as we can when it comes to the risk of megaflood. We know that eventually it will happen and that climate change is upping the odds.”
Source:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/12/california-climate-crisis-megafloods
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/12/weather/california-megaflood-study/index.html
