Flood is a natural event or occurrence where a piece of land (or area) that is usually dry land, suddenly gets submerged under water. Some floods can occur suddenly and recede quickly. Others take days or even months to build and discharge. Anywhere it rains, it can flood. According to www.FloodSmart.gov A flood is a general and temporary condition where two or more acres of normally dry land or two or more properties are inundated by water or mudflow. Many conditions can result in a flood: hurricanes, overtopped levees, outdated or clogged drainage systems and rapid accumulation of rainfall.
No one is safe!
ReplyDeleteFlooding has caused more death and destruction than any other natural disaster in the United States! According to National Geographic, floods can happen any day, at any place and any time. Click below to find out more about the risk of floods:
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/101-videos/floods
The National Flood Insurance Program (floodsmart.gov) reminds us that everyone is at risk, not only those in coastal areas or in tropical storms! Floods are caused by many different things. Hurricanes, melting snow, new construction, and outdated or clogged drainage systems are only some possible causes of floods. Below is a link to the NFIP's flood risk scenarios:
https://www.floodsmart.gov/floodsmart/pages/flooding_flood_risks/flood_scenarios.jsp
You can learn more about flooding and your risk here:
https://www.floodsmart.gov/floodsmart/pages/flooding_flood_risks/ffr_overview.jsp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ-iWUkg4t0
ReplyDeleteHere's a link to learn about the possible ways floods can occur!
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, more commonly known as FEMA, identifies all land as a flood zone. Everyone lives in a flood zone. To determine the risk, you must see if your area is identified as a low, moderate, or high risk.
ReplyDeleteYou can visit FEMA's website to view flood maps of your area:
http://msc.fema.gov/portal
This website also maps out flood zones and their risk in New York City:
http://www.floodzonenyc.com/
Over the past 20 years, there have been 14 occurrences of flooding in Richmond County, NY. Three of which occurred during the month of January. Another three floods occurred during the month of August.
ReplyDeleteWe can use this data to figure out that there is a 15% chance that there will be a flood in the month of January next year. The ratio of floods in January to years was 3:20. We can multiply both sides of the ratio by five to make the ratio 15:100, which in another way of saying 15%. There is also a 15% chance of a flood occurring in the month of August for the same reason.
We could also express this probability as a decimal (.15) or a fraction (3/20). While .15 and 3/20 have the same meaning as 15%, people are aren't accustomed to hearing probability expressed in those terms. Doing so would sound wrong and cause confusion.
The three months of the year that had the most most flooding were January, August, and October with three floods each. The occurrences of flooding were pretty evenly spread out across times of the year. I would not say that there is any time of year when flooding is most (or least) likely to occur. We need to be prepared for flooding all year round.
What is a flood?
ReplyDelete