Mike --

As I was saying before "the lights went out" Tuesday night, you are wrong, oh so wrong, in saying that a failure of the Delta levee system would only be a minor local disaster of only regional importance. Such a provincial and uninformed point of view!

Perhaps you should read "A Dangerous Place" by Marc Reisner. His book describes the magnitude of just such a disaster occurring. His hypothetical scenario is based upon an earthquake along the Hayward Fault that causes the levee system to fail and salt water to intrude, and the major impact it would have on millions of people.

BTW, Simon Winchester even references "A Dangerous Place" in his bibliography in his latest book, "A Crack in the Edge of the World." Reisner was an environmental author -- before his untimely death in 2000 -- who is better known for his classic "Cadillac Desert." In other words, he was a highly respected author, no impostor.

Barbara