The Truth About the Rain

Posted on January 26, 2005 in The Orange Weather

Record rainfalls in the sense that more water dropped from the skies than had ever dropped since they began measuring rainfall in the eighteen fifties did not occur two weeks ago. We got a lot of rain for January, but it wasn’t the all time record. When you measure the amounts of “the five days” against the great storms of 1862, 1938, and 1969, it didn’t measure up. Yet on Monday, January 10, Prado spewed out more water than it ever had in its history.

It’s time to speak up to unrealistic hyperbole that I see in so many stories. It wasn’t the clouds: it was the recontouring of the Southern California watershed under pavement, housing tracts, and industrial “parks” that caused our problem. By focusing on the rain, the media does us a great disservice: the problem is the way we’ve allowed development to proceed unregulated on open land. Instead of reducing the risk of flooding, we’ve increased it. We’re building in the wrong places yet again.

You and I all know who this serves: the developers down in Newport Beach. For the sake of the almighty dollar, they want to splash asphalt all over the San Juan Creek watershed now as they have done in the Santa Ana watershed. This area –best suited to be used as open range and agricultural land — now holds millions of people. Bad planning has put the lives of those who have come seeking the Disneyland Dream at risk. The Orange should still be growing oranges: but now we may be priming ourselves for a man-made catastrophe.