By Gary Meyer

One theme came through loud and clear from the 10 speakers who shared El Niño emergency information on Thursday, Nov. 19 at Frazier Park Library. It was simply this: Don’t wait until there’s a flood. Make preparations now.

Jerald Meadows of the National Weather Service (NWS) set the context for the evening: El Niño is not a storm system; it is a weather pattern related to the warming of sea surface temperatures in the east-central Pacific Ocean near the equator (the Peru Current, which is normally cool). The warming pattern is very deep, putting the engine in place to generate large storms over Southern and Central California.

About 100 people attended the event. Those who could, jammed into the library meeting room, the overflow flooded out into the hallway.

Kern County Roads Department Engineer Mark Evans brought the facts close to home. The threat isn’t off in the future, not even January or February, he said, it’s already here and began…(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

Above: Over 100 people poured into the Frazier Park Library to hear 10 officials talk about preparing for wet El Niño winter storms.

Above: Jerald Meadows of the National Weather Service (NWS) said deep warming off the coast of Peru has already begun powering intense storms and will get more intense this winter.

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This is part of the November27, 2015 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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