At some point something like this, possibly even worse, is going to happen again. Except next time instead of 350,000 people living in California there are going to be 40 million and there are now all sorts of dams that will fail catastrophically, adding all of the water in their reservoirs to the flood waters in massive, destructive waves. And we are not at all prepared; it's too big of a problem and everyone in charge just wants to ignore it and hope it doesn't happen on their watch.
Welp, I did ask for anti-democratic process and you sure gave me one.