slides left six hundred people dead; total damage, in-
cluding fisheries, approached one billion dollars.
North of the equator, Central America and Mex-
ico experienced drought. Along the length of Cali-
fornia, a series of violent Pacific storms smashed into
the coast, flattening waterfront developments and
causing massive erosion. Entire hillsides of luxury
homes gave way and slid into the ocean. A tornado
struck the Watts section of Los Angeles. Although
only a few lives were lost, the damages totaled
$1.1 billion. Unusually warm ocean water displaced
fish northward, depressing fisheries in Oregon and
Washington. In the southwestern United States, high
rainfall and unusually warm temperatures caused a
number of costly floods.
Warm air over the Pacific deflected the jet stream
northward, which in turn allowed warm, wet air to
penetrate into much of the Mississippi drainage re-
gion. The combination of high winter rainfall and
melting snow in the Rockies created massive flood-
ing that left sixty-five people dead and caused $1.2
billion in damage. At crest, the Mississippi River
nearly overwhelmed diversion works, sending over-
flow water into the Atchafalaya River, which would
have given the Mississippi a new course and left New
Orleans without a river.Impact The 1982-1983 El Niño is estimated to have
caused a total of $8.7 billion worth of damage, in-
cluding nearly $3 billion worth in the United States
and its Pacific territories. The weather caused more
than one thousand deaths, not including those
deaths due to malnutrition and disease in drought-
stricken and flooded areas. The weather disruption
and the destruction it caused acted as an impetus to
scientific research in oceanography, climatology, and
the study of other low-frequency, extreme natural
phenomena. Scientists believed that if they could316 El Niño The Eighties in America
During an El Niño storm on January 27, 1983, the Crystal Pier in San Diego, California, collapses under the onslaught of surging
waves.(AP/Wide World Photos)