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California faces rising flood risk as climate change intensifies, expert tells Assembly hearing
Summary
At a California State Assembly informational hearing, Jeffrey Mount of the Public Policy Institute of California told lawmakers that warming climate and stronger atmospheric rivers are increasing flood risk statewide, potentially making historic 19th‑century floods far more likely and raising the economic stakes to trillions of dollars.
Senior fellow Jeffrey Mount of the Public Policy Institute of California told the California State Assembly at an informational hearing that climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of major flood events and that the state’s present approach to flood planning is rooted in historical hydrology rather than what climate models project.
Mount said the state faces rising economic risk from flooding and cited modeling that places the scale of a worst‑case event at roughly $1 trillion in damages. He emphasized that ‘‘risk’’ in his remarks referred to the economic consequences of flooding — the probability of large events combined with the cost when they occur.
Mount laid out the basic mechanics: a warmer…
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