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Water is one of the most useful things on Earth. We drink it, bathe in it, clean with it and use it to cook food. Most of the time, it is completely benign.
But in large enough quantities, the very same stuff we use to rinse a toothbrush can overturn cars, demolish houses and even kill. Flooding has claimed many lives, more than any other weather phenomenon.
F looding happens during heavy rains, when rivers overflow, when ocean waves come onshore, when snow melts too fast or when dams or levees break. Flooding is the most common of all natural hazards.
Flooding may be only a few inches of water or it may cover a house to the rooftop. Floods that happen very quickly are called flashfloods.
Flood effects can be local, impacting a neighborhood or community, or very large, affecting entire river basins and multiple states.
When driving in flood conditions, six inches of water will reach the bottom of most passenger cars causing loss of control and possible stalling. A foot of water will float many vehicles. Two feet of rushing water can carry away most vehicles including sport utility vehicles (SUV’s) and pick-ups. |
| 1889 May 31Jonestown, Pennsylvania dam break 2,209 people died |
| 1906 Southern California, Colorado River: flooded parts of the Imperial Valley |
| 1913 The Great Dayton, Ohio Flood killed 360 people and destroyed 20,000 homes in the United States. It also damaged historic photographic plates belonging to Wilbur and Orville Wright. |
| 1927 April 20th. Greenville, Mississippi about 500 people died, 162,000 homes were flooded and 41,000 buildings destroyed; rescue operations include 33,000 people. |
| 1928 March 12th. Los Angeles area collapse of the San Francis Dam, estimated 450 people died, 900 buildings were destroyed, 300 houses damaged and 24,000 acres of agricultural land was devastated. |
| 1937 January 22nd Ohio & Mississippi River Valleys in Kentucky / Ohio: cities like Louisville and cincinnati were under water, nearly one million people became homeless, property damage estimated over 400 million, 380 people died |
| 1957 southwest Louisana storm surge flooding from Hurricane Audrey killed about 400 people. |
| 1965 New Orleans Hurricane Betsy flooded large areas of New Orleans for up to 10 days, drowning around 40 people. |
| 1976 July 31st. Colorado, Big Thompson Canyon River: rain storm produced a 20-foot high flash flood over a 25-mile stretch of the canyon; 418 buildings were destroyed, hundreds of people injured and 139 people died. |
| 1977 Kansas, Kansas City where major damage occured and : 25 people died. |
| 1983 the Pacific Northwest saw one of their worst winter floods. And the some of the Northwest states saw their wettest winter yet. The damage was estimated at 1.1 billion dollars. |
| 1992 Alaska from May to September there were unusually wet conditions, plus snow melt caused the 100 year flood in areas of Alaska. |
| 1993 August 1st.Midwest / Mississippi has worst flooding in recorded history, 38,000 homes damaged or destroyed, 20 million acres of farmland under water. |
| 1995 May 8th Louisiana flood caused extensive damage. |
| 1997 Aprial 18, North Dakota, the Red River poured into Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, North Dakota and 60,000 people were forced out of their homes. Downtown Grand Forks was burning and would destroy or damage eleven buildings on three blocks. |
| 1998 Conneticut has many floods in June. |
| 1998 Kansas City, Kansas on October 4th. has severe flash floods caused by heavy rain, city had no flood reaction plan, 12 people died. |
| 1998 San Marcos, Texas experienced flooding during October that had rain totals of 15" to 30" in a short period of time. |
| June 2001 Houston, Texas floods from Tropical Storm Allison killed over 30 people. |
| 2005 in August 80% of New Orleans, Louisiana was flooded due to the failure of several floodwalls. |
| 2006 The Mid-Atlantic States flood in the eastern United States is considered to be the worst in that region since the flooding caused by Hurricane David in 1979. |
| July 2007, July 6th Coffeyville, Kansas remains 20 percent under water while relief efforts continued in Franklin, Allen, Neosho, Cherokee, Coffey, Labette, Anderson, Linn and Bourbon counties. |
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Hurricane Harvey Flooding in Houston 2017 |
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| Do you live in a flood prone area? Are you tired of being flooded? Consider moving to Kingman, Arizona where we are wishing for rain! It's dry here. |
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