James D Best

Deluge James D Best

People think of water as benign. You can drink it, bathe in it, sprinkle it on a garden, freeze it to chill a drink or a sore back, swim in it, or laze on the surface in a boat or on a floater. Water is an essential element of life, useful and often great fun. But water can also kill. No one who has been hit by a huge ocean wave disrespects moving water. You can't fight it. You can't beat it. You can only get out of the way or let it throw you around like a rag doll in a Rottweiler's grip. Disaster stories come in many flavors, but few have a basis in history. In 1862, a sixty-five-day downpour pummeled the western United States. California suffered the brunt of the storm. Almost a third of the state was under water, roads were impassible, telegraph lines down, rivers overflowed, hundreds of people died, and hundreds of thousands of animals drowned. Sacramento remained under water for six months, forcing the state government to move to San Francisco. Geological evidence shows that a flood of this magnitude hits the western United States every one to two hundred years. It will happen again.