Flooding and Floodplains

Flooding and Floodplains

Flooding Facts

• Floods have caused a greater loss of life and property and have disrupted more families and communities in the U.S. than all other natural hazards combined.
• Flooding is the #1 natural catastrophe worldwide
• The peril of flood can happen at almost any time, almost anywhere; it does not take a catastrophic event to create flooding which results in catastrophic loss.
• The catastrophe of Hurricane Harvey is unprecedented for any major metropolitan U.S. city. But, it doesn't take a catastrophe for flooding to occur. It can happen almost anytime, almost anywhere. A storm of this magnitude in our region will happen again. It's only a matter of when.
• There are long-term effects of hurricanes on pollen levels. Pollen conditions may normalize or drop below pre-hurricane levels because the vegetation is stunted. This effect can persist for some time depending on the extent of damage. Tree pollen counts, for example, may be lower the next spring if a significant number of trees are lost to the hurricane.

• Everyone lives in a flood zone.
• You don't need to live near water to be flooded.
• Floods are caused by storms, melting snow, hurricanes, and water backup due to inadequate or overloaded drainage systems, dam or levee failure, etc.