pouring rain: uncaptured

Today was the first time since I moved to CA, ten years ago, that I walked in a downpour of rain.  I've been out in the rain, although not much in the last four drought years but today's downpour, which took place just as I headed to my pool, was the closest to a gusher I have seen in CA.

The water rushing downhill, as I walked uphill to my pool, was two feet wide and, in some places, ten inches high.

I was dressed for rain with a hooded rain jacket, had my swim things either on under my clothes or inside a plastic bag (hair dryer!).

During the slight, two block, uphill walk, every step as I watched the gutters actually overflowing with water, spilling up onto the sidewalk in many places, I realized the significance of building for rainwater capture. Cisterns to capture rainwater, which can become drinking water. And systems in building to capture the rain and use it to flush toilets, as my building and the one next door does. The building next door gets the rain from both buildings, uses it to flush toilets -- when there is rain to use.

Every building, every house, in this part of the world, and everywhere else,  should have rainwater capture systems.

Doesn't the water, when it drains into the bay, which is where this gusher was headed in its rush downhill, become saltwater?

Sigh.