Flood Facts for Kids

3.Floods can last for minutes, hours, days, or weeks. Some floods can last even longer, depending on the region, climatic conditions, etc. 

4.Being close to water bodies increases the risk of flooding. Villages, towns, and cities located close to rivers, seas, and oceans are more susceptible to floods. 

5.Floods can occur in one part of the city or throughout the state. 

6.There are five different types of flooding and they are aerial, catastrophic, coastal, riverine and urban flooding.

7.Aerial flooding is caused by heavy rainfall or snowmelt. The excess water gets collected in a low-lying area and starts to overflow. 

8.Catastrophic flooding is caused by infrastructure failure, like the failure of a levee or dam. 

9.Coastal flooding is caused by rising sea levels, like a storm surge caused by a hurricane. Regions on the coastline (in any country) are at a high risk of this type of flooding. 

10.Riverine (Channel) flooding is caused by water overflowing from a lake, pond, river or stream. It is the most common type of flooding. 

11.Urban flooding is caused by a drainage system or a storm sewer system that is overwhelmed. It can also happen when the hard concrete/ asphalt surfaces prevent the earth from absorbing the excess water.  

12.A flash flood is the sudden and rapid flooding of an area that is prone to flooding. It can happen in a few minutes or hours and are dangerous for humans and animals alike. 

13.Flash floods are caused by heavy rain, hurricanes, severe thunderstorms, tropical storms or melting snow.

14.Flash floods occur in hilly regions and dry riverbeds where water quickly accumulates in a place.

Flood Safety Planning and Alerts 

1. A flash flood watch is a weather alert issued by the National Weather Service. The NWS issues this type of weather alert when the conditions are right for flash flooding.
2. A flash flood warning is a weather alert issued by the National Weather Service. The NWS issues this type of weather alert when a flash flood is occurring or is imminent.
3. The NWS sends out advice to ‘turn around, don’t drown’, which means it asks people to move to drier or high-lying areas on their side instead of trying to cross a flood and reach the other side. 
4. The Association of State Floodplain Managers in the US educates people and promotes policies that can mitigate the risk of floods without affecting the natural balance in the environment. 
5. Governments and local authorities build levees, reservoirs, bunds, and weirs, apart from dams, to stop the overflowing water from rivers and lakes from entering the towns and cities. 
6. Maintaining wetlands and cleaning natural drainage systems can reduce the risk of floods in the region. 
7. Redesigning the infrastructure and installing rain barriers are other ways to mitigate the causes of floods. 
8. Beavers are little mammals that build natural dams to stop the water flow. They have a prominent role in controlling floods in high-risk areas. 
9. Technology like artificial intelligence and machine learning help accurately predict floods in advance and take the necessary action to minimize losses.

Impact of Floods on Our Lives 

1. Damage caused by flooding can reach into the billions of dollars. Floods kill more people compared to other natural disasters. 
2. Around 90% of all the natural disaster declarations in the United States are related to some sort of flooding. 
3. The northeast and Midwest regions in the US are most affected by floods. 
4. The time between the spring and fall see a majority of floods in the US, though they can occur throughout the year. 
5. Many automobile vehicles can float in as little as one foot of water during a flood. One should never drive into a flooding area. 
6. As little as two feet of rushing flood water can carry away an automobile, including a pick-up truck or SUV.
7. Flood waters have a fast-moving current. People can lose their balance in just six inches of water. 
8. People are asked to evacuate to safer places during floods. They take a few personal belongings and move to temporary homes until the floods subside. 
9. The shelter homes are set up by the local government (and NGOs) to provide aid to the flood victims. 
10. Floods pollute drinking water sources and lead to water-borne diseases like cholera, hepatitis, typhoid, etc. 
11. Floods dump the waste (debris) back on land. This can include plastic, metal, and hazardous chemicals previously released into the water bodies. 
12. Though floods occur mostly in plains and low-lying areas, they can wreak havoc even on plateaus if the infrastructure doesn’t have a proper drainage system for excess water to flow into the nearest water body. 
13. Countries like China, Bangladesh, and India have the highest exposure to floods due to their long coastlines.