Editorial: 2018 could be worse for California
Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the Dec. 2, 2017, Sacramento Bee.
Living atop ever-shifting tectonic plates, we know the Earth can shift with deadly force at any time, though we don’t dwell on it. But as 2017 nears its end, let’s reflect on the disasters we endured, and what they portend for next year and years ahead.
In the last rainy season, more rain and snow fell on our valleys and mountains than in any year recorded, this after five years of drought. Eroded by the force of millions of gallons water cascading out of Lake Oroville, the concrete spillway at the massive Oroville Dam crumbled in February, and the Butte County sheriff wisely erred on the side of safety by ordering 188,000 people to evacuate.
You can be forgiven if the Oroville Dam scare seems to have happened in the distant past, although in this time of climate change, such anomalous events could well be part of our future. That became evident on the terrible night of Oct. 8 and early morning of Oct. 9.