Regional superstorm study

Didn't we already have our one-day superstorm, 12/11/14. 

San Mateo County Times/Aaron Kinney, 4/20/15.  "Report:  Bay Area ill-prepared for coming superstorm's floods."

....  "In a study released Monday, the nonprofit Bay Area Council argues the region is ill-prepared for a rare but inevitable superstorm powerful enough to drop 12 inches of rain in a week. Flooding from such a storm, predicted to occur once every 150 years or so, would wreak $10.4 billion in economic damage, almost as much as the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, according to the council, a public policy organization backed by some of the Bay Area's top businesses. The report, "Surviving the Storm," calls for the implementation of various infrastructure projects, from levees and sea walls to wetlands and detention basins, and planning and coordination at all levels of government.

And this... flooding worse
Linda Mar Blvd, near Shopping Center

Remembering this... flooding not
too bad Sharp Park, Claredon Rd 

 ---- "The drought is a function of extreme weather, but it's only one side of the coin, and we know what's coming next," said Adrian Covert, policy director for the council. "With this report, it shows that we can't say we weren't warned, and the time to prepare is now."  ....  Eighty percent of the flooding damage from a 150-year storm would be concentrated in Marin, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. In the Bay Area, 355,000 residents and $46.2 billion in assets are situated in areas that are susceptible to a 100-year flood, let alone a 150-year event, according to the report."   Read Article.

Related news article - CBS local/Holly Quan, 4/20/15.  ....  "The nonprofit Bay Area Council released the report, “Surviving The Storm”, on Monday that says the storm could cause $10 billion in damage and bring 12 inches of rain in a week. The amount of damage would be about the same as the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989. .... “We’re concerned that businesses won’t be resilient. Their services will be cut off in a major storm like this,” said Adrian Covert, the policy director for the Bay Area Council’s Economic Institute. The report does not take into account the expected sea-level rise, which could magnify the estimated damage. .... Covert said what’s even scarier is that they haven’t even looked at what would happen if a storm pushed through the Bay Area, destroying the Central Valley levee system and the drinking-water supply. 

Reference, the Report - Bay Area Council Economic Institute, "Surviving the Storm", 3/15, pdf computer pages 97.   Reference, the Partnership - Bay Area Council Economic Institute, "The Bay Area Council Economic Institute is a public-private partnership of business, labor, government and higher education, that works to support the economic vitality and competitiveness of California and the Bay Area. Its work builds on the twenty-year record of fact-based economic analysis and policy leadership of the Bay Area Economic Forum, which merged with the Bay Area Council in January 2008. The Bay Area Council and the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) are the Institute’s leading institutional partners. The Economic Institute also supports and manages the Bay Area Science and Innovation Consortium (BASIC), a partnership of Northern California’s leading scientific research institutions and laboratories."

Note photographs. Flooding in Sharp Park/Claredon Road and Linda Mar Blvd., Pacifica, by Steve Bryne, KQED News/Storm around the Bay, 12/11/14.

Posted by Kathy Meeh