14 DAY TRIAL // Newly-discovered evidence show that, once every 100 to 300 years, a major megastorm hits the portion of the United States West Coast that now makes up California. The damages this natural event causes are widespread, and its effects if it were to hit today would be catastrophic.
According to simulations of what would happen if a centuries-old scenario would come to fruition again show that the huge Central Valley of California would be inundated following the storm.
This would lead to the creation of massive flood waves, that would damage at least 1 in 4 homes, or 25 percent of all residences in the areas. In addition, the waters would trigger very massive landslides, that would further affect residential areas throughout the state.
Until earlier this month, no one knew that the possibility of such a storm existed. The evidence showing that this happened in the past was presented in early January at a dedicated conference.
The scientific meeting was sponsored by the US Geological Survey (USGS), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the California Emergency Management Agency.
Scientists behind the new investigation say that their work is not meant to cause panic in the general population, but rather to serve as a warning to their colleagues. For scientists in California, learning more about the past instances in which such storms acted on the land should be a priority.
The researchers called the storm front an “atmospheric river” of moisture, that could be generated from the tropical Pacific Ocean. Its main manifestation would be the forming of rain clouds capable fo dropping as much as 10 feet of precipitations over California.
The weather events could last for several weeks, and could also blast the state with hurricane-force winds. This water-wind combination would loosen soils, and would be the main factor responsible for landslides, Daily Galaxy reports.
According to the study team, which included more than 100 scientists, engineers and emergency planners, the weather event would basically be a set of back-to-back storms, that would endlessly batter the state.
In the scenario the group set up, the combined effects of the floods and landslides called for at least 1.5 million people to be evacuated. Damage to property reached as much as $300 billion.
“We need to recognize that flooding here in California is as much of a risk as an earthquake. These storms are like hurricanes in the amount of rain that they produce,” said the chief scientist for the USGS Multi-Hazards Project, Lucy Jones.
“It's an extreme, but plausible storm. Our landscape can really handle quite a bit of rain,” explains the National Weather Service (NWS) Oxnard office meteorologist-in-charge, Mark Jackson.
“But when you get two storms back to back, you reach saturation, and the flood control systems are pushed over capacity,” concludes the expert, who was not a part of the research.