<
https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/californias-devastating-storms-are-a-glimpse-of-the-future>
"On the morning of January 10, 1862, Leland Stanford, the industrialist and
railroad magnate who would later lend his name to Stanford University, departed
his mansion, in downtown Sacramento, en route to the state capitol building,
about five blocks away. Stanford was preparing to be sworn in as the eighth
governor of California. He had to abandon his grand plans to travel in style,
via horse-drawn carriage, however. Sacramento lay under as much as eighteen
feet of river water after the region’s second major flood in as many months.
Weeks of downpour had caused the levees on the American River and the
Sacramento River to breach. While residents fled in droves, the Governor-elect
likely travelled to the capitol via rowboat. One can imagine the oars
disappearing into the brown murk as the detritus of a ruined city drifted by.
By the time that Stanford had placed his hand on the Bible and floated home,
the floodwaters had risen so high that he and his wife reëntered the mansion
through a second-story window. “The scenes of horror . . . defy description,” a
guest at Stanford’s inauguration later wrote. “Cracking, falling, floating
houses; businessmen ruined in an hour; strong men struggling for life in the
current of our streets. Many of all ages and both sexes clinging to houses and
floodwood, shrieking in despair, some sinking in death, and flood still
rising!” In the end, rain fell for more than forty days; the deluge stretched
from Oregon to San Diego, and as far east as Utah and Arizona. Sacramento was
underwater for months. The legislature and governor’s office temporarily moved
to San Francisco. (The state Supreme Court moved there and never left.)
Thousands of people are believed to have died. Even more cattle perished, and a
drought followed, forcing the state to abandon much of its livestock economy in
favor of crops.
The storms that have buffeted the state since December 31, 2022, evoke scenes
from the great flood that afflicted Stanford’s inauguration. In recent days,
gale-force winds toppled century-old trees onto cars and homes in Sacramento;
ocean waves wiped out a portion of a pier at Capitola, in Santa Cruz County;
rivers have exceeded their capacities, running over banks and into residential
streets and homes. President Biden declared a state of emergency; tens of
thousands of people have been displaced."
Via Bill Daul.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
