This city manager wants California to prepare for a megastorm before it's too late
According to city manager Ben Gallegos, Firebaugh, California—located directly on the San Joaquin River—is a wonderful area to raise a family. He has spent the majority of his life in this Central Valley hamlet. However, he is currently preparing the city for a megastorm, a natural disaster that could be far more deadly than the fires and drought that Californians are accustomed to. They develop at sea as thousands of miles-long plumes of water vapor. As they approach land, they release weeks' worth of rain and snow at once, resulting in catastrophic flooding. The Great Flood of 1862 was the most recent major storm to affect the West Coast. It briefly transformed a large portion of the 300-mile-long Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys into an enormous inland sea. Gallegos i certain of the consequences a megastorm would have for Firebaugh. He told NPR's Leila Fadel that there was "a lot of water. Flooding for many days. [A] possible hazard to really wiping out the city.&qu