Scientists propose “the Other Big One” storm scenario in California

Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey unveiled a potential one-in-100-year or one-in-200-year storm scenario in California that could result in more than $300 billion in damage, putting it in the same category as the San Andreas earthquakes.
Under this scenario, a storm dubbed the ‘ARkStorm’ could produce up to 10 feet of rain and cause extensive flooding (USGS estimates roughly one in four homes in California would be affected).
To define the effects of the ARkStorm, the USGS, in partnership with the California Geological Survey, created the first statewide landslide susceptibility maps for California. Also, the first physics-based coastal storm modelling system was created for analyzing severe storm impacts (predicting wave height and coastal erosion) under present-day scenarios and under various climate-change and sea-level-rise scenarios, a release from the USGS says.
“The ARkStorm is essentially two historic storms (January 1969 and February 1986) put back-to-back in a scientific plausible way,” said Lucy Jones, chief scientist of the USGS Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project. “The model is not an extremely extreme event.”