From the descriptions - 5,000+ square miles flooded in the Central Valley, 1/4 or so of all taxable property in the entire state destroyed, etc. - I'm thinking that LA's riverbed system might fall short by an order of magnitude or two against another 1862-level flood.
Water does not absorb into parched dirt nearly as well as wet dirt. It’s a big contributor to flooding when rainfall finally appears, as the water has nowhere to go.
And then, like now, the beauty of the state — or the lure it has, for it seems to be something more than just beauty — brings ever more people. Earthquakes, floods, fires, droughts; where do I sign up?!
Snow and cold weather from Nevada to the East Coast except for Florida...every damn year.
Hurricanes, every year or two - no thank you.
California - a flood every 200 years, an earthquake every hundred or so years. I'm standing pat on my hand. I'm in SoCal for good.
If there's a flood, I know all the high places around me, I'm no dunce, I will drive to those places. And they ain't far - no traffic jams - only 10-15 blocks away, but not too many people know about it. Lots of parking.
Massive earthquake - ok that would suck but I have a lot of food and water squirreled away. These places would not be found by roving bands of hungry men ready to kill for it, if it came to that.
So keep your snow, keep your tornadoes, keep your hurricanes.
From the Wikipedia page:
"The storm was not an unprecedented occurrence. Geologic evidence has been found that massive floods, of equal or greater magnitude to the 1861–1862 event, have occurred in California roughly every 100 to 200 years."
CA's current population is ~40,000,000. Imagine the reactions to a flood which killed ~400,000 of them.