Academic

MORE ON THAT CALIFORNIA SUPERSTORM SCENARIO, including this: ?The 1861 and 1862 storms show what is?

By Glenn Reynolds

MORE ON THAT CALIFORNIA SUPERSTORM SCENARIO, including this: “The 1861 and 1862 storms show what is possible. The 19th century featured much more drastic disasters than the 20th. In my previous post about the 1811-1812 New Madrid earthquakes (Mississppi river changed course), the 1815 Mount Tambora VEI 7 volcanic eruption, the 1859 solar Carrington event and other awesome displays of nature’s power I made the argument that if the 21st century features disasters more like the 19th century then we are in some some tough times. But I missed out on the California storms of the early 1860s. With nearly 40 million people now such a storm would do far greater damage. Picture a 300 mile long lake in the Central Valley and hurricane-force winds.”

Given all the human-made disasters of the 20th Century, I suppose we should be glad that it was a period of comparative calm in other ways, but I think it did produce a false impression of what constitutes “normal.”

Meanwhile, you may want to check out Bill Quick’s disaster-preparedness forum. And here’s a disaster-preparedness list.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on January 19, 2011 (boomark / email).