A 43-day storm that began in December 1861 put central and southern California underwater for up to six months. It formed an inland sea Island in the middle of California. As Florida stares down the barrel of Milton, California more than a century ago, had its catastrophic weather event.
Catastrophic weather events are not new to the United States. When they say the hundred year flood, that actually means that. An event everyone 100 years.
A 43-day storm that began in December 1861 put central and southern California underwater for up to six months, and it could happen again so goes the headline story from a 2013 Scientific American article. It turns out California has a long history of major drought followed by massive flooding. It is a great read and well worth the time.
This is a repost from Bunks Vault of Gold.
Before everyone gets their knickers in a knot that global warming is causing this latest hurricane in Florida, an almost exact description of the water destruction that looks like may happen in Florida occurred in 1862. Flooding today is described as from a hurricane. But if predictions hold true, this may only be the beginning.
California has a history of abruptly switching from drought conditions to torrential rain.
Brewer describes a great sheet of brown rippling water extending from the Coast Range to the Sierra Nevada. One-quarter of the state’s estimated 800,000 cattle drowned in the flood, marking the beginning of the end of the cattle-based ranchero society in California. One-third of the state’s property was destroyed, and one home in eight was destroyed completely or carried away by the floodwaters.
The Coming Megafloods, talks about what is responsible for most of the largest historical floods in many western states. The megaflood to strike the American West in recent history occurred during the winter of 1861-62. California bore the brunt of the damage. This disaster turned enormous regions of the state into inland seas for months, and took thousands of human lives. The costs were devastating: one quarter of California’s economy was destroyed, forcing the state into bankruptcy.
Today, the same regions that were submerged in 1861-62 are home to California’s fastest-growing cities. Although this flood is all but forgotten, important lessons from this catastrophe can be learned. Much of the insight can be gleaned from harrowing accounts in diary entries, letters and newspaper articles, as well as the book Up and Down California in 1860-1864, written by William Brewer, who surveyed the new state’s natural resources with state geologist Josiah Whitney.
In 1861, farmers and ranchers were praying for rain after two exceptionally dry decades. In December their prayers were answered with a vengeance, as a series of monstrous Pacific storms slammed—one after another—into the West coast of North America, from Mexico to Canada. The storms produced the most violent flooding residents had ever seen, before or since.
…..The specific weather pattern that the Native Americans of the West recognized and knew would bring particularly severe flooding is once again understood today. The powerful storms originate in the warm and moist tropical Pacific Ocean. Recent research describes these storms more broadly as “atmospheric rivers,” and they often result in the worst floods in not only the American West, but across the globe.
Story continues The Coming Megafloods A great read. Wasn’t this before humans could cause climate change?
Thoughts and prayers go out to those living in harms way.
It turns out California has a long history of major drought followed by massive flooding.
A 43-day storm that began in December 1861 put central and southern California underwater for up to six months, and it could happen again so goes the headline story from a 2013 Scientific American article.
But first the set up:
Climate change is leading to more extreme rainfalls that can overwhelm infrastructure.A deluge of repeated rainstorms set the stage for the near-disaster at the Oroville Dam in California, a crisis that foreshadows what the Golden State can expect more of with climate change, several experts said.While it’s too soon for studies that would look for a climate link to the Oroville drama, experts said climate models show California likely will swing between devastating droughts and extreme storms. That could cause significant problems if the state’s infrastructure isn’t ready, they said. 188,000 people had a mandatory evacuation.
Actually,
California has a history of abruptly switching from drought conditions to torrential rain.
Brewer describes in 1861-1862 a great sheet of brown rippling water extending from the Coast Range to the Sierra Nevada. One-quarter of the state’s estimated 800,000 cattle drowned in the flood, marking the beginning of the end of the cattle-based ranchero society in California. One-third of the state’s property was destroyed, and one home in eight was destroyed completely or carried away by the floodwaters.
The Coming Megafloods, talks about what is responsible for most of the largest historical floods in many western states. The megaflood to strike the American West in recent history occurred during the winter of 1861-62. California bore the brunt of the damage. This disaster turned enormous regions of the state into inland seas for months, and took thousands of human lives. The costs were devastating: one quarter of California’s economy was destroyed, forcing the state into bankruptcy.
Today, the same regions that were submerged in 1861-62 are home to California’s fastest-growing cities. Although this flood is all but forgotten, important lessons from this catastrophe can be learned. Much of the insight can be gleaned from harrowing accounts in diary entries, letters and newspaper articles, as well as the book Up and Down California in 1860-1864, written by William Brewer, who surveyed the new state’s natural resources with state geologist Josiah Whitney.
In 1861, farmers and ranchers were praying for rain after two exceptionally dry decades. In December their prayers were answered with a vengeance, as a series of monstrous Pacific storms slammed—one after another—into the West coast of North America, from Mexico to Canada. The storms produced the most violent flooding residents had ever seen, before or since.
Story continues The Coming Megafloods A great read. Wasn’t this before humans could cause climate change?
Now we go on to drought.
California drought created by politicians over the Delta Smelt.
Brazen Boxer, Feinstein reverse, Now Want Water for California Farmers
March 18, 2010 — bunkerville
So which is it Boxer and Feinstein? They were opposed to water September 23rd, 2009. The Democrats opposed legislation the Republicans offered, and voted down giving water to the San Joaquin Valley in favor of the Smelt. Reverse: Now in favor. Why? She sold her vote for Obamacare.
All for Obamacare and getting two more votes.
The president’s health care reforms are on the ropes and the San Joaquin Valley’s two blue-dog Democratic congressmen Dennis Cardoza and Jim Costa have been reluctant to support the president’s reforms. So imagine everyone’s surprise when the Department of the Interior announced yesterday that it is dramatically increasing the water supply to the valley’s parched lands. And what a coincidence, now the two California congressmen who were once “undecided” are being moved over into the “yes” column:
As a vote approaches on Obama and Pelosi’s government takeover of healthcare, Code Red is now considering two supposedly “undecided” California Democrats, Dennis Cardoza and Jim Costa, to now be “yes” votes.
Guess what:
The U.S. Department of Interior announced yesterday that it is increasing water allocations for the Central Valley of California, a region that depends on these water allocations to support local agriculture and jobs. The region has recently been starved for water and as a result unemployment has soared. Not surprisingly, Cardoza and Costa had a hand in the announcement:
“Typically, Reclamation would release the March allocation update around March 22nd, but moved up the announcement at the urging of Senators Feinstein and Boxer, and Congressmen Costa and Cardoza.“(“Interior Announces Increased Water Supply Allocations in California,” U.S. Department of Interior news release, 3/16/10)
BEFORE:
Feinstein & Boxer Vote Against Water for California Farms. September 23rd, 2009 • Richard Cochrane
On the Senate floor, a clearly unhappy Feinstein likened the surprise amendment to Pearl Harbor and she voiced dismay that it would be brought up without her prior knowledge.
The video of Feinstein is either before she was for it or against it. It gets confusing.
A federal judge ruled on in December 2010 that the liberal study that forced California officials to cutback on water to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta was based on faulty science.
Despite this Barack Obama said he would veto any Congressional bill that would “reverse the progress” (drought) in the San Joaquin Valley.
Investor’s reported, via HotAir
DeMint’s long-shot amendment to a Fiscal 2010 Interior Department funding bill would have effectively restored full irrigation deliveries for a year to what is being referred to as a new Death Valley. The 400 miles San Joaquin Valley is a fertile strip of farm land that produces more fruits and vegetables per square foot than any comparable land in the nation – when it has water, which it does not.
With hundreds of thousands of Californians out of work, food prices rising rapidly and California’s farmers desperate, both its U. S. Senators voted no to an amendment that was billed as a way to help solve the San Joaquin Valley’s water problems.
By a nearly party line 61-36 vote, the Democratic-controlled Senate rejected the amendment offered by Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina.
Now the fires.
CA fires of hell, thank the environmentalists
Obama-Era Eco-Terrorism through Environmental Regulations
These Obama-era regulations introduced excessive layers of bureaucracy that blocked proper forest management and increased environmentalist litigation and costs — a result of far too many radical environmentalists, bureaucrats, Leftist politicians and judicial activists who would rather let forests burn than let anyone thin out overgrown trees or let professional loggers harvest usable timber left from beetle infestation, or selectively cut timber.
In a 2016 Townhall column, Paul Driessen explains:
Eco-purists want no cutting, no thinning – no using fire retardants in “sensitive” areas because the chemicals might get into streams that will be boiled away by conflagrations. They prevent homeowners from clearing brush around their homes, because it might provide cover or habitat for endangered species and other critters that will get incinerated or lose their forage, prey and habitats in the next blaze. They rarely alter their policies during drought years.
The resulting fires are not the “forest-rejuvenating” blazes of environmentalist lore. They are cauldron-hot conflagrations that exterminate wildlife habitats, roast bald eagle and spotted owl fledglings alive in their nests, boil away trout and trout streams, leave surviving animals to starve, and incinerate every living organism in already thin soils … that then get washed away during future downpours and snow
In September 2016, Governor Brown vetoed SB 1463, a bill in the California legislature which would have required the California Public Utilities Commission to prioritize areas at increased risk from overhead wires in their management of wildfires.
Then we had Brown slashing the forest management budget. Good move moonbeam.
Also note the infamous Delta Smelt budget was not cut… this endangered specie causing the water shutdown thus causing the drought in the lush farmland of Central California.
Governor Newson continued the absurd fire policies as his predecessor.
And the coup de grâce of California at its finest?
More than 2 million people are being plunged into darkness as part of an unprecedented, orchestrated blackout across Northern California. But good luck finding out whether you’re one of them. Bloomberg’s Lynn Doan reports on “Bloomberg Markets.”
Recall 2019:
That is the best of the swamp today.
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Bonus: Feel the green!
Vogue magazine writer Lynn Yaeger piled on the media criticism of Melania Trump on Tuesday for “wearing a pair of towering pointy-toed snakeskin heels” while she headed out to survey the disaster in Texas.
The writer of the anti-Trump piece said she spotted a photo of the first lady leaving the White House — and launched into a rant about Mrs. Trump’s choice of shoes for boarding Air Force One.
Yaeger began her piece with a verbal eye-roll: “Oh, Melania.”
She continued with a reference to the first lady’s “plagiarizing Michelle Obama in her convention speech” and her hypocrisy in marrying “the greatest cyberbully” — while making a platform of crusading against bullying. “And now this!” wrote Yaeger.
Here is what Adriennes Corner came up with and by the way, wander over for a great read as she dissects Melania’s misdeeds.
Paul Revere Award
Women and Guns (click)
BUNKERVILLE | God, Guns and Guts Comrades! 