Sunday, December 26, 2010

[californiadisasters] Beach Town Lives on the Edge of Danger



San Clemente's residents enjoy quiet prosperity and great ocean views -- except when they're dealing with wildfires, landslides, explosive blasts and the potential for a nuclear emergency.

When your closest neighbors include Southern California's only nuclear power plant and its largest military base, you hardly even blink when the thunder of high explosives echoes over the hills or sirens wail a nuclear alert drill.

Exposure to danger comes with the geography of San Clemente, a prosperous, laid-back Orange County beach town flanked on three sides by steep, brush-covered hillsides, the San Onofre power plant and the Pacific Ocean.

Wildfires often break out during military exercises in the brush-covered hills of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton or in coastal canyons that creep down the hillsides toward the ocean. Heavy rains sometimes saturate the hillsides, causing destructive landslides. There are tsunami warning signs posted near the shoreline. And medicine cabinets are stocked with potassium iodide tablets because of the remote, but real, possibility of a nuclear accident.

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View entire article here: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-san-clemente-danger-20101226,0,3818456,full.story

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