Preparing for Flooding Flood Preparedness......
What Is A Flood?
Floods are the most common and widespread of all natural disasters--except fire. Most communities in the United States have experienced some kind of flooding, after spring rains, heavy thunderstorms, or winter snow thaws.
A flood, as defined by the National Flood Insurance Program is: "A general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of two or more acres of normally dry land area or of two or more properties (at least one of which is your property) from:
- Overflow of inland or tidal waters,
- Unusual and rapid accumulation or runoff of surface waters from any source, or
- A mudflow.
[The] collapse or subsidence of land along the shore of a lake or similar body of water as a result of erosion or undermining caused by waves or currents of water exceeding anticipated cyclical levels that result in a flood."
Floods can be slow, or fast rising but generally develop over a period of days. Mitigation includes any activities that prevent an emergency, reduce the chance of an emergency happening, or lessen the damaging effects of unavoidable emergencies. Investing in mitigation steps now, such as, engaging in floodplain management activities, constructing barriers, such as levees, and purchasing flood insurance will help reduce the amount of structural damage to your home and financial loss from building and crop damage should a flood or flash flood occur.
What Should I Do?
• Buying flood insurance is the best thing you can do to protect your home, your business, family, and financial security.
Preparedness planning involves those efforts undertaken before a flood to prepare for or improve capability to respond to the event.
Hurricane Flood Threats: Hurricane Threats & Inland Flooding
Landslides & Mudslides
| Software Applications & Tools |
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HAZUS, a natural hazard loss estimation methodology developed by FEMA in partnership with the National Institute of Building Sciences. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology, HAZUS allows users to compute estimates of damage and losses that could result from an earthquake. To support FEMA's mitigation and emergency preparedness efforts, HAZUS is being expanded into a multi-hazard methodology with new modules for estimating potential losses flood (riverine and coastal) hazards.
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FEMA worked in partnership with NOAA, through the Multihazard Mapping Initiative, to create multihazard mapping web pages. The objective of HazardMaps.gov is to maintain a living atlas of hazards data and map services for advisory purposes supplied from a network of hazard and base map providers. |
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