Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Close to record rainfall

As you've no doubt heard (and experienced, if you're local), it's been raining in Southern California.

Traffic is a mess. Yesterday, on my way in to work, not only was traffic at a crawl, one of the major streets was half flooded. Signs were up warning people to stay out of the water. It seems the sewers had backed up.

Although you'd think sewage backing up would be obvious, it's often far from obvious. I recall a news story a few years ago, in which water started welling up from a street in an Italian city. (I think it was Venice, but I won't swear to it.)

It was in close proximity to a church or a saint's statue or something. (But then, in a city like Venice, what isn't? People assumed it was a miraculous spring, and started using the water for its blessing powers.

I'm sure you know where this is going, and yes, you're right. It was a sewer leak.

I could make all kinds of comments about European sophistication, and those who bitterly opposed the "toilet to tap" water recycling project, but I'll leave those to the alert reader.

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