Community Corner

Quakes Not the Only Concern Locals Face, Says Seismologist

Dr. Lucy Jones, seismologist with the US Geological Survey, will speak at the San Bernardino County Museum on the ARkStorm, that describes a scenario of intense rain. An ARkStorm could cause severe damage to a city's infrastructure.

While most of the country braces for the big quake to hit California, there is another natural danger that has not only already impacted the state and Loma Linda twice, it’s become a growing in risk due to climate change.

The public should be equally prepared for the ARkStorm, which describes a scenario of intense rain that leads to catastrophic flooding, said Dr. Lucy Jones, US Geological Survey seismologist.

Jones will present a lecture titled The ARkStorm Scenario at the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands on Wednesday. The storm could be similar to the one experienced in California in 1862, and four larger such events in the past 100 years, she said.

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"The ARkStorm scenario is a complete picture of what that storm would do to the social and economic systems of California," Jones told an USGS publication. "We think this event happens once every 100 or 200 years or so, which puts it in the same category as our big San Andreas earthquakes.”

The storm could cause landslides, debris flows, coastal inundation and flooding, USGS officials said. The result could be infrastructure damage and pollution.

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The scenario is plausible, Jones said. In fact a smaller version hit Loma Linda in December of 2010, according to museum officials. Several days of pounding rain brought down mud and debris from the south facing hills, overwhelming San Timoteo Creek which breached its banks flooding homes and damaging businesses. The damage to city property alone cost more than $1 million.

In 1969, the city was devastated by a similar ARkStorm-like storm.

That flood in 1969 covered about two-thirds of the town, and devastated the area around Poplar Street and Van Leuven Avenue, according to city Historian Jim Shipp.

Loma Linda Academy was underwater. Damage to the Academy was about $100,000, a lot of money in 1969, Shipp wrote in a .

“Several homes were irreparably damaged by the floodwaters, mostly in the Poplar Street area,” according to Shipp. “Some flooded homes were cleaned out and repaired, but the neighborhood was never as it had been.”

The ARkStorm Scenario explores the resulting impacts to the social structure and can be used to understand how California’s “other” Big One can be more expensive than a large San Andreas earthquake, museum officials said.

The event is free and open to the public. The San Bernardino County Museum is at 2024 Orange Tree Lane in Redlands. Parking is free. information, visit www.sbcountymuseum.org or call (909) 307-2669 ext. 229 or (TDD) 909-792-1462.


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