Cause Of Flooding And Its Impacts On Society

The Main point of view in this article is how disasters like flooding and drought which are attributed to the changing climate are affecting some parts of the country. Weather forecasters issued flash flooding for the Deep South’s coastal areas while California is struggling with drought that has created trouble for the economy.

Floods are common natural disasters that occur all over the world. Flooding has devastating impacts on the lives of people who are affected by the disaster. Floods can ruin crops, demolish homes, take innocent lives and cause many other types of hardships. These disasters can also leave people with a financial burden and emotional effects. Studies have shown that floods have led to various sickness and health complications. This common disaster has recently taken place in the state of Louisiana. Louisiana has been suffering from an enormous flood and has left people without homes, without food, and without personal belongings.

Climate change has been predicted that weather changes, such as in the winter, warmer temperatures tend to cause floods which can "expand the areas at risk of flooding by 40%–45% over the next century"(Allred et al. 2). Flooding is a bigger issue than people realize, in my opinion. Recently I watched the documentary film “Before the Flood”, it was about global warming. Leonardo DiCaprio was featured in the film, he admitted not knowing much about climate change, but stated that he wanted to learn what it is all about as well as why and how it is affecting our atmosphere. In the documentary, scientists were in Antarctica, they measured the amount of ice that had melted over the span of a few years; the amount of ice that had melted was unreal. As a result of watching this documentary film I started to think differently about the earth’s atmosphere.

In the article, “What We Can Say About The Louisiana Floods and Climate Change”, Chris Mooney states that due to climate change our planet is warming, causing the increase the of rainfall throughout the world. He claims that a warming planet overall breaks warm temperature records more frequently than cold temperature records. Due to the atmosphere warming its ability to retain water increase as the water vapor increased this past year, and dumping more than two feet of rainfall. He points out that heat and moisture helps caused heavy rainfall due to the amount of moisture in the atmosphere. The purpose of this article is to help us explore and understand that climate change could be a possible reason why extreme weather is occurring more

Climate change was blamed for risen in temperature by half a degree, producing more vapor which results in heavy rainfall in 2010 in Brisbane. The Burnett River and Fitzroy River were exceedingly bad hit on 28th and 29th December 2010, when the stream level rose to more than eighteen meters. Author was discussed that flooding proceeded into January 2011, turning out to be more terrible in Brisbane and damages came around 2.38 billion AUS dollars. Flood again hit the area in 2013 (Davies 2013).

Disasters occur naturally, but climate change causes them to be more violent and more unpredictable. Climate change also makes it more likely that a natural disaster will happen. “The kind of surge related flooding that Superstorm Sandy brought to parts of New York City is about 50 percent more likely than it was in 1950” (Borenstein). Flooding on coast lines can be caused by the melting of the polar ice caps. The thing that causes the polar ice caps to melt is the rising temperature of the atmosphere. The melting of the polar ice caps is bad because it raises the level of the ocean. When the level of the ocean is raised it can cause less land to be by the ocean. Another way the rising temperatures of the Earth is catastrophic is the harm it does to some national parks. There are several national parks that are getting hit the hardest. A couple that are affected are Glacier National Park, and Joshua Tree National Park. “Across the West, bark beetles, which thrive on warmer winters, are infesting more and more pine trees, turning once-green hillsides into fire hazards” (Duncan). This is a problem because trees are major producers of oxygen, and they help take the carbon monoxide, that we breath, out of the air. Even though there is a lot of evidence that climate change is man made, there are still people who deny it and say that it occurs

Flooding is most frequently caused from substantial precipitation when waterways are full and the additional water has nowhere to go. Though rainfall isn’t always the cause of floods; they can be the outcome of other occurrences, mostly in coastal areas where inundation can be triggered by a storm surge linked with a tropical cyclone, a tsunami or a high tide corresponding with above average river levels.

Floods occur in Australia mostly due to the unusual amounts of heavy rainfall which can cause floods quite easily and hit a lot of people with strife, as they are quite unpredictable and although they can happen all throughout the year the most common time is during the wet season which is usually December to March. There are two main types of floods being, Rapid-onset floods which are floods which occur quite quickly and can turn out to be the most tragic having the least amount of warning. They occur mostly in coastal areas as well as mountain headwaters of major rivers. The second group of floods is flash floods which occur when areas have been hit with high amounts of precipitation due to storms and are the most dangerous having little or no warning becoming a growing problem in city areas. The main features of a flood include; large amounts of water which can lead to little to large amounts of destruction to buildings as well as nature, many injured or deaths and even contamination of toxins in the water. Floods can be minor or major having the potential to just flood a small street or being able to cover a whole city. The QLD coast floods were not just one flood but consisted a series of them over time.

In the years ahead, climate change will have a significant impact on every aspect of the daily lives of all human beings -- possibly greater even than war. Shifting precipitation patterns and ocean currents could change where and how food crops grow. If icecaps melt and low-lying areas are flooded, as is predicted, entire populations could be forced to move to higher ground. The tsunami of 2004 and Hurricane Katrina, in 2005, provided vivid examples of what large-scale climactic catastrophes entail.

Flooding is a natural cause that happens when too much rain water overflows rivers and marshes, but floods become a problem when they affect people who live around the area. This is what causes it to be a natural disaster. In this paper, I am going to talk first about the flooding in Somerset, UK. Second, I am going to talk about the flooding of the Mississippi in 1993. Finally, I will conclude with how both of these floods could have been prevented and how they could help prevent a flood in the future, along with my own opinion of what I have learned.

A flood is one of the worst natural disasters that can hit your home, and it’s only natural for you to want to prevent it from ever happening. Flooding can cause serious damage to a home and its foundation. In addition, flooding may lead to the formation of mold and mildew in a short time.

Flooding is simply a devastating natural phenomenon that can literally wash away human dreams, as well as lives and properties. With a rather very unpredictable weather system spurred by global warming as well as the changing landscape, flooding remains one of man's worst nightmares.

Floods are the most common and dangerous kind of natural disaster. They can be caused by many things, including natural and man-caused ways. First, floods are most commonly caused by an outrageous amount of rain over usually dry land. “Excessive rain, a ruptured dam or levee, rapid ice melting in the mountains, or even an unfortunately placed beaver dam can overwhelm a river and send it spreading over the adjacent land, called a floodplain.”(Floods: Information and Facts). Floods can be case by other natural disasters too. “Strong waves and powerful winds, such as those found in hurricanes, can also naturally cause flooding.”(Student Resource Center). Additionally, floods can be caused by tsunamis and cyclones because both would bring water into a small or low lying area. Also, flash floods can be even more deadly than regular floods because they can come with little warning. These floods are caused by a tremendous downpour of rain, a dam or levee failure, or a sudden release of water, which could be held by an ice jam.

Floods can be a huge threat anywhere in the United States that experiences large volumes of precipitation, ocean waves coming on shore, when snow melts at a fast rate, or when dams or levees break (U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, and Office of Oceanic & Atmosphere Research). In the United States, floods kill about 140 people a year (National Geographic Partner, 2017) “The catastrophic flooding in Houston from Hurricane Harvey is the latest reminder that floods kill more people in the United States than any other type of natural disaster and are the most common natural disaster worldwide (Lam, 2017).”

Flooding occurs in many areas of the country. Coastal and river floodplains are more at risk for flooding; however long periods of heavy rain can also be a threat in many states. Floods can also occur with other types of natural disasters such as Hurricanes. With Hurricanes there can be