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For the past few weeks, images of flooded streets in California have saturated the media, following a wave of winter storms that brought heavy rain and wind and left at least 20 dead.
But, paradoxically, while the people try to remove the mud from the houses and recover the landslides, the State is also in an emergency due to the drought that has been going on for almost twenty years.
Experts attribute the apparent contradiction to climate change and poor infrastructure to collect excess water in torrential rainy seasons.
The levels of water reserves in the region rose significantly with the torrential rains, but the rainfall has not been able to offset a downward trend of recent years.
A large part of the liquid accumulated by the floods ends up in the sea, partly because there is no infrastructure to channel it correctly.
In 2014, California voters approved a $2.7 billion project to expand the dam system, but work will only start this year.
The speed of the storms is also an obstacle for moisture to penetrate to the underground aquifers that supply the area.
At least 500 storm-related mudslides have been reported so far, causing “extensive” damage in at least 40 of the state's 58 counties.
The death toll is around twenty.
Even so, experts point out that the relief from the rains could be temporary.
Last year, the State experienced a similar stormy season, followed by a prolonged dry period that aggravated the lack of liquids.
The risk of a new series of forest fires in the summer has put the authorities on alert.