Commentary: A way to break the terrifying pattern of fire and flood
In Southern California, water and fire can be a lethal combination. Just ask anyone who fled before December's Thomas inferno only to evacuate again when rains slammed down on the burn areas, triggering deadly mudslides.
For those whose houses were incinerated or flooded out, the understandable impulse is to restore what has been lost. Given what these residents have been through, no city or county would stand in their way. And government officials won't block
