I am writing from storm ravaged Southern California. For the first time in 84 years, a tropical storm has rolled through the southland dumping a substantial amount of precipitation on the area, combined with high winds in some locations. As a result of this dangerous storm, there were a lot of warnings, alerts and schedule changes…except for the NFL. A game at SoFi Stadium between the hometown Chargers and the New Orleans Saints went on as originally scheduled. I guess even an act of God can’t stop the NFL. You would think a team like the Saints, who has had their home stadium torn up by a hurricane a few years ago, would decline to play a game in such atmospheric conditions, but the game went on.
I expected a rush at the grocery stores but it never materialized. Yes, some people did stock up on important items like water, toilet paper, milk and beer…some of us cope with disasters differently than others. When I finally was able to get to the store, it was fully stocked as if they were expecting a rush on supplies but it never happened. Kind of reverse of how all these stores looked during the pandemic. I got what I needed and headed home to hunker down, batten down the hatches, and do whatever else you do when a hurricane blows through. My wife and I prepared as if a show was coming. It’s not often we get a major rain storm in August, the driest month of the year. We had the house opened up so we could have a good view of the rainfall, along with any lighting and thunder that might accompany it. We were disappointed. We didn’t get the light and sound show we were hoping for. That’s how it goes for rain deprived Southern Californians
The rains started slowly on Sunday morning, just as I was entering church. By the time I got out, it was steady but not heavy. By mid-day, the rain was heavier and it did not let up. We had the weather carnage playing continuously on the TV, providing updates on the path of Hurricane Hilary and the potential damage it would cause. The heaviest rain showed up in the late afternoon and it was impressive. We enjoyed the unusually cool temperatures for August, the rhythmic sounds of the rainfall and the cacophony of sirens from rescue vehicles heading to pull another idiot out of a huge puddle they thought they could drive through.
As we were trying to enjoy our unusual natural disaster, we suddenly felt a wave going through the house followed by a loud thud, crack and shake from an earthquake. It was like being on a cruise ship in rough weather, just without the free cocktails and never ending desserts. The quake was just northwest of where we live and was anywhere from a 5.1 to 5.9 shaker, depending on who you were listening to.
I have to say, all those newscasters who were doing wall to wall coverage on our first tropical storm in decades, seemed relieved. They never had to report on a tropical storm but they do know how to cover an earthquake. I could swear I saw a sly smile on the news anchor after the shaking stopped.
We never really got a lot of wind. From the reporting I saw, places like Palm Springs, the rest of the low desert and the high desert felt the brunt of the storm. Flooding, trees down and general chaos. Fortunately there have been no reports of any deaths, thank goodness, but plenty of stories about stupidity. I am willing to bet that no matter how many times authorities warned people to stay away from the ocean, a bunch of surfers were heading out to ride some of the gnarly waves driven by the storm. Awesome dudes.
We were also asked to stay off the roads but there were plenty of accidents due to the weather, including a car having a rock land on top of it while driving Pacific Coast Highway. The driver was fine but probably wishing he stayed home. And of course there were those who were driving home from Las Vegas. Most of them are probably gamblers so they’re risk takers to start with.
It is now the day after. “The storm” has rolled out of SoCal and the sun is starting to break through. In a couple of days our temperatures will be back into the 90s and authorities will get back to telling us how the rain will make our fire season, or mudslide season, even worse. Hopefully the Colorado River and all those lakes out in our deserts will benefit from our very wet winter and surprise drenching this weekend.
Besides fires, mudslides, heat waves, tsunamis and earthquakes, we can now add tropical storms to our natural disasters. Take that Florida.
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