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I'm just blown away

docoflove1974

Entry posted by docoflove1974

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Ok, I'm not, really, but it makes for a great title.

 

I crack up anymore about meteorology and the news. If you're here in the States, and perhaps on some BBC newscasts, the weather here in Northern California made headlines. "Monster storm!" "Buckets of rain!" "Flooding!"

 

Yeah, ok. Let me 'splain some tings, Loocee:

1) January is usually a wet month for us. Usually November is, too, as is March...this time 'round November was kinda dry, but so far January's holding up its end of the bargain. Granted, it's only the 4th.

 

2) High winds aren't always usual--certainly not hurricane force winds, true enough. But it does happen. I remember one year my dad had no more gotten down out of the trees after pruning back the cypresses behind the house when the next day a huge storm came in, and possibly would have knocked some of them down. Like I said, it's not usual...but it's happened before.

 

3) Flooding...what people keep neglecting is that each place that floods is in a goddamn flood plane!!!. Therefore, every year, when storms hit, the tendency is for these areas to flood. Yet people build there...because 'they've always been there'...blah blah blah. Lookit, I do have sympathy for you that you lost your stuff...but whose idea was it to go and live in a natural flood plane? Did you not check the area out before you decided to live there? Oh, sorry, that requires common sense.

 

Basically, I figure that it has to be 'big news' (hell, it's taken over half of the newscasts locally) because news producers are bored...or perhaps they find this entertaining. Really, I don't need another 'story' about people loading up on supplies and sandbags, nor the trees that randomly came down. The bit about the tree falling in the BART tracks, yeah, that's important (BART, or Bay Area Rapid Transit, is our elevated/subway transit system). Closing of roads and bridges, that's very important. But notes on how a small creek is "20 feet from flood stage, and rising"??? Nope, really, that's ok.

 

FYI: I'm dry...but then again, I didn't go outside. Go figure.

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Lost_Warrior
But notes on how a small creek is "20 feet from flood stage, and rising"??? Nope, really, that's ok.

 

LOL I know, right?

 

That's like the New Orleans thing. Well yea, that was a huge disaster. Very tragic. But WHO got the brilliant idea to build a city in a giant sinkhole, holding the sea back with walls, right on the southeast coast where hurricanes hit several times a year??? It was bound to happen!! Duh...

 

Oh yea...and did you know there are earthquakes in Los Angeles? The San Andreas fault...again...duh...

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docoflove1974
That's like the New Orleans thing. Well yea, that was a huge disaster. Very tragic. But WHO got the brilliant idea to build a city in a giant sinkhole, holding the sea back with walls, right on the southeast coast where hurricanes hit several times a year??? It was bound to happen!! Duh...

 

Oh yea...and did you know there are earthquakes in Los Angeles? The San Andreas fault...again...duh...

 

Well, yes and no. With regard to New Orleans, it's a natural delta in that area, but there are plenty of 'dry' areas. If I recall correctly, sinking wasn't a huge problem until the Army Corps of Engineers did their usual bang-up job in planning all of the freeways and the various developments in the 20th century which took away the natural levies that Ol' Man River had built up (and perhaps adding to them). Had they kept that 'idea', Katrina would probably not have been as devistating.

 

As for out here and earthquakes...what most people west of the Rockies don't realize is that most of the land along the coast (and much of it in the valleys) is granite and clay...quite stable. And there are various ways of engineering buildings, etc., so that it would take a monster quake to knock them down. If you think about it, the quake of 1989 (Loma Prieta/NorCal) and 1994 (Northridge/SoCal) were major quakes--6.9 and 6.7, respectively. Despite what you guys might have seen on tv, there was really little damage; most buildings withstood the movement, and well as most infrastructure. In all honesty, California has been a major hub of research and development on earthquake safety and engineering for over 100 years.

 

I believe (although I'm not 100% sure) that in California, when one is in contract to buy property, one receives information about the faultlines, floodplanes, and all that jazz. If it's not a law, it's something that reputable (ha!) real estate agents do.

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