So, for people like myself that have lived here in California most of their lives, the problem is sort of "Feast or Famine" which is what it has always been in California in relation to getting enough water where we need it to be when we need it.
I have written about how around 1969 or 1970 I was in the desert near Big Bear Mountains at that point near Old Woman Springs and when I drove nearer the mountains I saw a wall of water several feet high coming at me me. Luckily, I was in my 1968 Camaro which handled well in strange situations with a lot of power as a muscle car too so I just (before the wall of water hit me head on, I burned rubber and spun the car around quickly and drove away as fast as I could drive on that paved road. So, this way I wasn't going sideways across the desert in my Camaro pushed by a wall of water which already had everything that could float coming at me to begin with out of the mountains.
The reason I bring this up is that rain in California often is scary because of the altitude changes here.
We have both the highest mountain in the lower 48 states "Mt. Whitney" combined with the lowest point in the United States which is well below sea level of Death Valley, California.
So, when you have scary 16 inches of rain that comes within 2 or 3 days time often (when it comes) it is pretty often that some people will die from snow or rain or mud slides here. The other thing that people die from is they burn to death trying to save their homes and not leaving until it's too late. There's no reason to burn up unless you don't have fire insurance. And even then burning up is unnecessary.
People often are worried about Earthquakes in California but for me personally, Fire is the scariest followed by mudslides when you don't expect them. Earthquakes for me are about number 10 or more down my scary list after Fires in Santana Winds of 80 to 100 miles per hour and mud and water slides like I faced several feet high coming straight at me out of the mountains that day long ago now.
So, from someone who has lived in California pretty much continuously since 1952 Earthquakes usually are not what you need to worry about. I have only had One experience in the San Fernando Quake in 1971 where I actually believed I was going to die for a few minutes time. So, only once since 1952 did I believe I was going to die in an earthquake.
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