California super storm scenario ripples through the state. California, devastated by earthquakes in the past, is now pushed to the brink of facing another natural disaster, this time from a plausible super storm that researchers say would damage one-fourth of the state's buildings and houses, if it happens.
The so-called storm scenario prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey says such super storm has potential to move water of almost 50 Mississippi rivers into the Gulf of Mexico, causing massive floods and devastation in California.
A computer-generated model based on storms in 1969 and 1986, projected what researchers called super storm that would dump water of up to 10 feet of rain and paralyze the state in rains for over 40 days.
Code-named "ARKStorm", the two-year study by a team of 117 scientists, engineers, emergency relief organizations and insurers sought to plan emergency relief mechanism in case such a super storm hits the state.
"We create these scenarios to understand what are the implication of the types of very rare events that science tell us has to happen in our future," Lucy Jones, chief scientist of the USGS Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project, said on the sidelines of a symposium at the University of California, Davis.
Citing geological records, he said super storms were not new and they happened in the past, as frequently as a massive earthquake hit the San Andreas Fault, said an AP report quoting him.
Researchers have also said the powerful storm over California last month dumped water almost 20 times more than that discharged from the Mississippi River into the Gulf.
False projection: meteorologists
While the report was spreading fast on the Internet, there is also criticism mounting from the meteorologists over such reports meant for scientists but making inroads into the news media and creating panic among the people.
TWS Meteorologist Kevin Martin says: "Any outlet that deems scares the living daylights out of the public with false titles should lose credibility. The fact is, it is a scenario, not an actual storm coming as we speak".
California is under a dry spell and no rains are in January, not on the scale as projected in the research study, assured Martin, a meteorologist for TheWeatherSpace.com, on his site.
Source : http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/101883/20110118/california-super-storm-kevin-tws-mississippi-san-andreas-fault-california-storm-super-storm-disaster.htm
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