New report predicts cost of Bay Area super storm

In this month's Estuary News, I have a short little item about a new report called Surviving the Storm, by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute with other public agencies and private firms. It includes some very interesting historical data and insightful observations about extreme weather and high-rainfall events in the Bay Area over the past 160 years or so, all of which contributes to the formulation of a specific hypothetical super storm, which the authors then modeled to determine its approximate economic impacts throughout the region. Their conclusion: a 100- to 200-year storm of the sort the authors dream up would cause at least $10.4 billion in damages. You can find the report at the above link, and my article ("Pretty Penny for Extreme Event") on page 8 of the June issue of Estuary News (pdf).