Out of the mud grows the lotus

Photo: Alex Welsh

From the LA Times: How bad was Hilary?

It was pretty bad. 

On the other hand, there's this in the NY Times:

....At a time of year when Southern California is normally dangerously desiccated and very vulnerable to wildfires, some meteorologists and engineers pointed to the positive effects of the drenching rains.

Officials in Los Angeles County touted the success of projects that had sought to divert and store rainwater. As of Monday morning, Los Angeles County had captured enough storm water to supply at least 33,600 residents for a year, said Steve Frasher, a public works spokesman. [emphasis added]

And the storm was helping to dampen fire risks in Southern California, said Daniel Swain, a wildfire expert at the University of California, Los Angeles. “There’s likely to be a prolonged reprieve in Southern California,” he said in an online briefing. “Enjoy it while you can”....

On still another hand---this is a three-handed blog---other parts of California are burning now:

....the Northern California Deep Fire, which began last week, grew to more than 3,000 acres over the weekend and began ripping through the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in Northern California. By Tuesday, the fire had expanded to 3,823 acres and was only 5 percent contained, according to the U.S. Forest Service....

I learned "Out of the mud grows the lotus" as a kid from the great Don Sherwood on the radio. Calling Sherwood a mere "DJ" doesn't really cover it.