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California’s Water from Colorado River Could Be Crippled by a Big Earthquake. Drought Makes Fixes Vital

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Hayley Smith

As drought, global warming and chronic overuse push the Colorado River to perilous new lows, water officials are hoping to prevent an earthquake from severing a critical Depression-era aqueduct that now connects millions of Southern Californians to the shrinking river.

Recently, officials from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California celebrated as crews lowered a section of earthquake-resistant pipeline into a portion of the Colorado River aqueduct — the 242-mile system of pumps, tunnels, pipelines and open canals that carry water from Lake Havasu to Southern California.

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For This Climate Scientist, The Getty Fire Made Clear The Need To Prepare For Disaster

/in , /by /CALmattersby Robert Lempert

My personal and professional lives collided in the middle of the night at the end of October when my neighbor pounded on our front door.

Had we received the warnings of the growing Getty fire? We hadn’t. Our neighbor shouted that mandatory evacuations had been issued for much of our Pacific Palisades community in Los Angeles.

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OPINION: Ready for California’s next emergency? We hope so

/in , /by /Modesto Beeby Editorial Board

America is ready for Florence’s visit. That’s what President Donald Trump told us Thursday. We hope his confidence is justified and that people and provisions are in place to respond to this emergency.

We don’t want this to become another Hurricane Harvey, that destroyed 300,000 buildings in Texas. Or, worse, another Hurricane Maria, which killed maybe 64 people (the initial, now-discarded, estimates) or maybe 1,417 (a number supported by statisticians) or even 2,975 (which George Washington University is using now).

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