A flood, basically, is what happens when the water level rises in a place or area where there was a little or none of it before. It also, can be described as an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land, a deluge. Floods are natural phenomena common in many places around the world where there is either a river nearby or the local weather can dump large amounts of rain.
* As an extra note about this subject, it is interesting to know that the word “Flood” comes from Old English, Flod, or Pleu, of an Indo-European language root.
Ok, let us continue with the topic.
Causes for it are usually that the volume of water within a body of water, such as a river or lake, exceed the total capacity of the body, and as a result some of the water flows or sits outside of the normal perimeter of the body. It can also occur in rivers, when the strength of the river is so high it flows right out of the river channel. (This explanation is not applicable in such instances as sea flooding).
Excessive rainfalls of course can cause disastrous flooding. Here in Chile we are witnesses every year or floods caused by rains, in the south of the country and especially in Santiago, where with just some hours of nonstop rain the city becomes a real mess, with its street totally covered of water.
Hurricanes have features such as “storm surge” (sea flooding) and obviously, the large amounts of precipitation associated with hurricanes.
The damage caused by floods is classified into two main types:
- plain water damage, this is when the water basically soaks everything, sometimes it can dissolve foundations and make the ground unstable and muddy.
- rushing water damage, the case when the water crashes into buildings, cars and other things. This is flood water that often kills people and animals commonly due to drowning.
To prevent this to happen, some countries, especially where it occurs often due to geographic location, are trying to manage some procedures like, for rivers for example, they have built some defenses like levees, bunds, reservoirs, and weirs.
Coming back to our example here in Chile, the idea for every year is to have more sewers to keep the water from rains, which is a constant and so repetitive problem in our country, and as I mentioned before, in our capital city.
