California Fires

The descriptions of the California fires remind me of the 1993 flooding on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. (see here too) Each kind of disaster is different (just as each incidents of disaster is different from one another), but cross disaster commonalities do exist. Tornadoes, the more common Missouri disaster, are instantaenous, more like earthquakes. One takes cover and then cleans up. Fires and floods involve armies of defenders going out to meet the disaster, have much longer durations than most other disasters, and produce the long period of displacement that delays clean-up until after the disaster. Tornado and earthquake clean-up generally takes place within 24 hours. According to the National Weather Service, The Missouri River was above flood stage for 62 days in Jefferson City, Mo., where I was living at the time. Grafton, Ill., recorded flooding for 195 days. That's a long time to wait to get back to your home and see what is left. The flood did tend to rise and fall, even while remaining above flood stage, so some cleanup was possible, only to be halted again by rising water.