Historically-speaking the past few days have been rather rough for Southern California when it comes to natural disasters with Santa Barbara seeming to get the worst of it both earthquake-wise and wildfire-wise.
Eighty-seven years ago this morning a rather powerful earthquake (about M6.8) rocked the Santa Barbara area killing 13 people and effectively demolishing the downtown area which was subsequently rebuilt in an architecturally-cohesive, consistent and coordinated manner (Spanish Colonial Revival) giving Santa Barbara its wonderfully distinctive downtown.
Twenty-one years ago yesterday the San Gabriel Valley was rocked by the strong M5.8 Sierra Madre Earthquake which killed two people and injured 100 people and caused widespread scattered damage. A year later (or twenty years ago yesterday) Southern California was rocked by two powerful earthquakes, the M7.3 Landers Earthquake and three hours later the M6.5 Big Bear Earthquake. The former quake killed three people and injured 400 people but most of its damage was focused in the lightly-populated high desert of SoCal. The latter event killed nobody, injured few and caused surprisingly light damage given its size and location.
Twenty-two years ago day-before-yesterday the arson-caused Painted Cave Fire ravaged Santa Barbara killing one person, burning 640 homes, and charring 4,900 acres of prime real estate and thick chaparral.
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