Out of the fire, into the flood

October 23, 2007 10:50 AM

In Chapter 3 of his 1999 Pulitzer Prize winning book The Control of Nature, John Mcphee describes the catastrophe from debris flows following wild fires in the Los Angeles area in 1978.

Not only do the fires destroy the vegetation that helps hold the soil in place during winter rains, the heat from the fires waterproofs the ground, creating a fast moving stream that gathers everything in its path. I remember talking to people in Pasadena who remembered seeing huge boulders in the street following those debris flows in '78.

posted by strangeleftydoublethink (8 comments total)

It is really, really hard to think of a nonfiction writer better than McPhee.
posted by jfuller at 10:54 AM on October 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

And yet California real estate is the most expensive in the United States, go figure.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 10:57 AM on October 23, 2007

I don't know if it was mentioned in that book or if I heard it elsewhere, but after people moved from areas that were hit with landslides and the houses were repaired, real estate agents never mentioned the danger.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 11:00 AM on October 23, 2007

It is really, really hard to think of a nonfiction writer better than McPhee.

McPhee is top of the game!
posted by ericb at 11:10 AM on October 23, 2007

And yet California real estate is the most expensive in the United States, go figure.

Location, location, location. Proximity to Pacific Ocean and Hollywood Studios, partly.

after people moved from areas that were hit with landslides and the houses were repaired, real estate agents never mentioned the danger.

Repaired? Rebuilt from the ground up more likely. And after everything had gone through the big burn/flood/landshift, it's "obviously" safer than it was before, so the sales pitch goes. And L.A. has more of a tendency than most areas to tear down landmark buildings to build new, so a little "natural urban renewal" is par for the course.

Here is an interesting irony. If the current drought conditions continue, we may actually avoid the second part of the usual fire/flood pattern this time. Yippee.
posted by wendell at 11:17 AM on October 23, 2007

Proximity to Pacific Ocean and Hollywood Studios, partly.

I bet there is some sub-conscious Jaguar posing going on too.. It isn't so much that you are rich enough to own the Jaguar, but driving it around demonstrates that you are rich enough to repair it.
posted by Chuckles at 12:09 PM on October 23, 2007

This is a nice bookend to his article about the levees in New Orleans.

Also, I'd like to get in on some thirding in terms of the McPhee related superlatives in here.
posted by 31d1 at 5:29 PM on October 23, 2007

jfuller, I couldn't agree more. Brilliant writer.
posted by shoepal at 9:12 PM on October 23, 2007