What exactly is a flood? Floods come in all depths, from just a couple inches to many feet. A flood is a rise of water with no place to go.

Floods cause more than $40 billion in damage worldwide annually, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Coastal flooding occurs when a large storm or tsunami causes the sea to surge inland For example, on natural drought hardened or frozen farmland, or on concrete paving. Flash flooding in India resulted in scores of elephants being swept away from the Nameri game reserve. Areas that are not high-risk flood zones are responsible for over 20 percent of National Flood Insurance Program claims and one-third of federal disaster assistance. Most homeowner’s insurance policies do not cover flood damage, you must purchase a separate insurance policy to cover flood damage. Sometimes the area covered is wide and flat; water tends to spread out and be slow-moving, and may not appear to travel at all. Excessive rain, a ruptured dam or levee, rapid melting of snow or ice, or even an unfortunately placed beaver dam can overwhelm a river, spreading over the adjacent land, called a floodplain.

Areal or urban flooding occurs when low-lying impenetrable ground becomes saturated as rainfall cannot run off as quickly as the accumulation of water. Over 20% of the flood insurance claims and one-third of all flood disaster assistance is for flood damage outside the 100-year floodplain. There are few places on Earth where flooding is not a concern.

Torrential rains from decaying hurricanes or tropical systems can also produce river flooding. The power of floodwater is extraordinary and lethal. A picture of the 1927 Mississippi River Flood. 10 Facts About Flooding. This flood killed over 2,200 people. Floods can be a prevalent problem in the UK. Understand how floods happen, the different types of flood events and much more with our flood facts for kids. Massive efforts to mitigate and redirect inevitable floods have resulted in some of the most ambitious engineering efforts ever seen, including New Orleans's extensive levee system and massive dikes and dams in the Netherlands. If you live in a high-risk area and you have a federally backed mortgage, you must buy flood insurance.

More than £80m has been spent on flood defences in Cumbria since Storm Desmond hit the county in 2015, according to the Environment Agency. Famously fertile floodplains such as the Mississippi Valley, the Nile River Valley in Egypt, and the Tigris-Euphrates in the Middle East have supported agriculture for millennia because annual flooding has left tons of nutrient-rich silt deposits behind.

In the first decade of the new millennium, extreme rainfall events combined with changes in land use have resulted in an increase in floods and an increase in annual average flood losses from $6 billion to $10 billion despite the billions of dollars invested in flood control. Depending on their type, floods can develop very slowly over time after extensive rains or in just a few minutes, very quickly, without any sign of rain. Overbank flooding: What most people think of when they hear the word \"flood.\" Filled to capacity because of heavy rain or melting snow, the water within a river overflows its banks and spreads across the land around it. The water and landscape can be contaminated with hazardous materials such as sharp debris, pesticides, fuel, and untreated sewage. There are two basic types of floods: river floods, when water climbs above the edges of a river and cover a floodplain with water, and flash floods, when a large quantity of water rapidly sweeps over an area.

Not only do floods damage property – sometimes beyond repair – but they can spread disease and pose a very significant risk to life. Many ancient communities relied heavily on the annual flooding of floodplain valleys on rivers such as The Tigris-Euphrates, the Nile, and the Ganges. The flood facts listed below will help you learn about the different types of floods, what can cause a flood, past historic floods and other useful flooding facts. A single acre of wetland, saturated to a depth of one foot, will retain 330,000 gallons of water – enough to flood thirteen average-sized homes thigh-deep. Urban flooding is caused by a drainage system or a storm sewer system that is overwhelmed. /* sci facts 160 */ Flooding is caused by too much rain in too … Case study - the Cumbrian floods, 2015. A picture of the damage from the 1889 Johnstown Flood from a dam collapse. google_ad_client = "pub-4643150179421087"; Cornwall’s Bocastle flood of 2004 was among the most extreme in British history. River flooding is the most common type of flood event. They can occur very quickly, often without warning and with little or no excessive rainfall. Flooding is the most common natural disaster. Floods cause an average of 82 deaths per year, making it the deadliest weather related disaster in the U.S. Land development and construction including new buildings and roads makes an area more vulnerable to flooding because it takes away land that would naturally absorb the water. A picture of the 1931 China Floods. For the past 30 years, flooding has resulted in almost $8 billion in damage. Floods can occur at any time of the year, in any part of the country, and at any time of the day or night. ". Join more than 180,000 amazing people who stay up to date on news and ways they can help protect our rivers.

Common in the Midwest, this kind of flooding can take days to dissipate. In the UK five million people are vulnerable to flooding each year. Setting levees back or otherwise modifying levees allows the floodplain to store more water naturally, keep people safe, and provide other benefits such as clean water and wildlife habitat. The review also contains a plethora of facts and figures. This web page contains flood facts for kids and is a great resource for anyone of any age researching floods. Meanwhile, melting glaciers and other factors are contributing to a rise in sea levels that has created long-term, chronic flooding risks for places ranging from Venice, Italy to the Marshall Islands. Copyright © 2020 Water Damage, Fire Damage Restoration, Mold Remediation, Carpet Cleaning - RestorationMaster. Floods are the most common natural hazards in the United States. But what are the facts? They renamed it Nemo. google_ad_client = "pub-4643150179421087"; If any of the below flood facts are inaccurate, please contact us and let us know. When homeowners take steps to protect themselves and to reduce the impacts of flooding through mitigation practices such as elevating or flood-proofing their homes, moving out of harm’s way, and investing in “natural defenses” they can save themselves and taxpayer’s money because it’s less expensive to prepare for a flood than it is to keep cleaning up afterwards. No other kind of natural disaster in America has caused more death and destruction than floods. Floods can damage bridges, roads and other transport links. 95% of those who were killed by the 1976 Big Thompson Canyon flood in Colorado, died trying to outrun the water along its path rather than climbing to higher ground. Flash floods can spell enormous death tolls and unprecedented destruction to towns and infrastructure. Flash floods can have 10 to 15-foot-high walls of water. Standing flood water could be electrically charged and very dangerous if there are downed power lines. Floods can happen everywhere, it just depends on whether the risk is high, medium, or low: people outside of “high-risk” areas (or the “100-year” floodplain) actually file over 20% of the flood insurance claims and receive one-third of disaster assistance for flooding.

Copyright © 2020 Facts Just for Kids. We do know that over 40 percent of the U.S. population lives in counties with levees and that many of these were designed decades ago for agricultural purposes but now have homes and businesses behind them. In terms of number of lives lost and property damage, flooding is the most common natural hazard. 20 Flood Facts. Naturally frequent flooding makes floodplains the “lifeblood” to surrounding areas. Understand how floods happen, the different types of flood events and much more with our flood facts for kids.



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