Flooding is the most common natural disaster in the United States. It’s also the deadliest. Each year floods kill more people than hurricanes, tornadoes or lightning. Flooding is likewise the #1 cause of death from extreme weather around the world.
Floods are also quite concerning from a financial perspective. Water can absolutely trash your home and result in extensive (and expensive) damage. If you don’t have flood insurance (which many homeowners don’t), you’re looking at a complete catastrophe for your family.
Causes of flooding & why flood risks are rising
Unfortunately, flooding disasters are becoming more and more common, and are only projected to get worse with climate change. Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, warming the air, and warmer air holds more water vapor. This allows thunderstorms to get bigger, retaining more water. When they finally reach that tipping point, they dump more water all at once over a particular area. It results in a situation where some areas get drenched with too much water even as others suffer from drought.
Urbanization is also contributing to our flooding problems. When it rains in an undeveloped area, much of that water is absorbed into the ground and taken up by the roots of vegetation. When it rains over an area covered by houses and concrete and asphalt, very little of that water soaks into the ground. Instead it runs off into waterways, which swell and flood either in the immediate area or further downstream. A study in the March 2020 +Geophysical Research Letters+ found that, on average, each time a city expands its roads, sidewalks or parking lots by 1%, annual flood magnitude in nearby waterways increases by 3%. (Gies, 2020)
Those living near rivers or the coast have always had to worry about flooding. But flood risks are now threatening homes and people who live outside the so-called 100-year flood plane and historically have not been prone to floods. Meanwhile, many communities that do reside in flood-prone areas have seen these ‘100 year’ floods happening every 8-10 years.
Information on flooding & flood safety
The following information will help you better prepare for floods and the risk they pose to your family: