美国国家公共电台 NPR--This city manager wants California to prepare for a megastorm before it's too late

This city manager wants California to prepare for a megastorm before it's too late

Transcript¹

Firebaugh, Calif., sitting right on the San Joaquin River, is a great place to raise a family, says city manager Ben Gallegos. He's lived in this Central Valley community for most of his life.

But now he's preparing the city for a force of nature potentially more destructive than the fires and drought Californians are used to — a megastorm.

They form out at sea as plumes² of water vapor³ thousands of miles long. As they reach land, they dump rain and snow for weeks at a time, causing devastating⁴ flooding.

The last megastorm to hit the West Coast was the Great Flood of 1862. It temporarily turned much of the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys into a giant inland sea, 300 miles long.

Gallegos is in no doubt about what a megastorm would mean for Firebaugh.

"A lot of water. Flooding for many days. [A] potential hazard to really wiping out the city," he told NPR's Leila Fadel.

Climate scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles say that climate change will increase the frequency of these megastorms.

While they used to occur every 100-200 years on average, rising temperatures mean we'll now see them as often as every 50 years.

Xingying Huang and Daniel Swain, who co-authored the research, say a megastorm could mean millions of people displaced by flooding, major transportation links severed⁵, and damage totaling nearly $1 trillion.

Gallegos is worried that bigger cities will be the focus of flood-prevention spending before a megastorm, rather than his city of around 8,500 people.

"You think about San Francisco, Los Angeles. Is the state really going to say — or the feds — let me give Firebaugh $50 to $60 million to upgrade the levee, or should we give it to somebody else?" he said. "They say, 'Oh if we lose that town, what impact is it going to have to the state?' Well, it's going to have a lot of impact to the state."

Firebaugh is an agricultural community, growing tomatoes that are processed into sauces for the restaurant industry. Farmers also grow cantaloupes. Gallegos says the loss of those businesses would have a knock-on impact on California's economy.

Residents of Firebaugh are worried by the prospect⁶ of a megastorm hitting, especially after a previous evacuation due to a flood in 1997 didn't go well.

"The city wasn't prepared at that time for an evacuation. They evacuated⁷ all the residents to our community center. But the community center was right next to the river, so there was a levee that was washing out," Gallegos said. "So they went and sent them out to our neighboring cities. But those cities were not ready for our residents, so then they had to get them back. And then they put them up in a warehouse⁸ just west of the city."

Gallegos knows that state and federal officials have a choice: Pay for flood prevention measures now, or pay much, much more later to help Firebaugh recover from a megastorm.

"We need help. I always tell our leaders, we can fix it now, which would cost less than when we have an emergency, and you have people trying to fix it, which would cost a lot more than being proactive," he said.

If nothing is done, the alternative doesn't bear thinking about for Gallegos, he said.

"I think Firebaugh would be wiped out."

The audio for this story was produced by Chad Campbell and edited by Simone Popperl and Adam Bearne.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 plumes   

羽毛( plume的名词复数 )； 羽毛饰； 羽毛状物； 升上空中的羽状物

参考例句：

• The dancer wore a headdress of pink ostrich plumes. 那位舞蹈演员戴着粉色鸵鸟毛制作的头饰。
• The plumes on her bonnet barely moved as she nodded. 她点点头，那帽子的羽毛在一个劲儿颤动。

3 vapor   

n.蒸汽，雾气

参考例句：

• The cold wind condenses vapor into rain.冷风使水蒸气凝结成雨。
• This new machine sometimes transpires a lot of hot vapor.这部机器有时排出大量的热气。

4 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

5 severed   

v.切断，断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 )；断，裂

参考例句：

• The doctor said I'd severed a vessel in my leg. 医生说我割断了腿上的一根血管。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We have severed diplomatic relations with that country. 我们与那个国家断绝了外交关系。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。

7 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。

8 warehouse   

n.仓库；vt.存入仓库

参考例句：

• We freighted the goods to the warehouse by truck.我们用卡车把货物运到仓库。
• The manager wants to clear off the old stocks in the warehouse.经理想把仓库里积压的存货处理掉。