Flood In New York City

In April 2012, the United States of America experienced Sandy, known as one of the deadliest and costliest hurricanes in the American history. It is estimated that the hurricane caused damage of about $75 million. Besides numerous causalities along its path, the deadly hurricane left many cities without electricity, communication system, infrastructure and even shelter in many cases. Within the United States, New Jersey and New, both major socio-economic hubs and highly populated regions, remained the worst hit area of the storm.

The Ellicott City flood was destructive because it was on a high gradient stream. The high gradient stream made it flood faster, and had low stream discharge. Discharge is cross section of stream channel. It was also capable of moving large particles, which is an example of deposition and erosion. In the experiment, the ‘Main Street Ellicott City’ stream was more affected than the Meandering Stream. The Main Street Ellicott City stream was flooded faster, and more houses and cars were destroyed compared to the Meandering

Reports revealed that by 2080s, the projected flood heights for locations in Connecticut (e.g., Norwalk, Westport, Bridgeport, Greenwich Cove, Shippan Point, Stamford, and Stratford) could range from 11.5 to 13 feet for a Category 1 hurricane, and 14.5 to 15.7 feet for a Category 3 storm (Gornitz et al., 2004). Therefore, rising sea level could account for 18-22% of the increase in flood height (in the high sea-level rise scenario) or 6-8% in the lower case (Gornitz et al., 2004). With the rising sea level, floods generated by storms of this magnitude could approach 18 feet by the 2080s (Gornitz et al., 2004). The increase in the projected flood level cities in Connecticut will be greatly affected such as Bridgeport and New Haven. As an illustration, a significant portion of both Bridgeport and New Haven lies within the high-risk flood zone, and during severe storms this place a large population, private property, and infrastructure at high risk. In New Haven, some infrastructures that are at risk include the New Haven railroad station and track yards, the Tweed-New Haven Airport, ramps to the Connecticut

In the year 2005, New Orleans was famously hit a major natural disaster that took lives and destroyed the homes and civilians. This wrath of Mother Nature became to be known as Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 hurricane with gusts peaking at 174/mph according to the Safir- Simpson wind scale (SSHS). With this Hurricane having its path directly on a city only being on average 1-2 feet below sea level, it created conditions for serious havoc (NOAA, 2012). The aftermath left a serious physical imprint on the city, which has the potential to never be removed. This imprint left by Hurricane Katrina caused extensive damage to 134,000 housing units, destroying multiple bridges along the Gulf Coast, as well as various buildings across the city, which led to harmful chemicals leaking into the water system, such as petroleum and natural gas. Finally, Hurricane Katrina also caused the main power grid to be disoriented for a number of weeks. As a result, the damage costs from the storm added up to be about $108 billion (2005 USD), which according to Eric Blake was the costliest storm ever to hit the United States (Blake et al. 2011). Hurricane Katrina perpetuated all of these tribulations, as it drastically altered the lives of the many inhabitants of New Orleans and they continue to face the repercussions of the storm in their day-to-day lives.

Hurricane Katrina hit the southeastern coast of the United States in August of 2005. The eye of the storm went through the city of New Orleans and caused thousands of casualties and more than eighty billion dollars in damage (Schwartz). However, poor engineering and design allowed the immense flooding to breach the levee system and flood most of the metropolitan area. Despite the Delta Service Corps admitting that they knew of the possible failures for over twenty years, they claimed that insufficient budgets set by Congress and local governments prohibited them from restructuring and preserving the levees (Can We Save New Orleans?). Katrina was the third most intense land falling tropical storm in United States history. The combination of

History will affirm that from the beginning of the settlement of New Orleans in 1717, it was then and continues to be a location destined to periodic flooding caused by the Mississippi river and rising storms. Throughout time, New Orleans would challenge nature by primarily fortifying the river’s natural levees to periodically engineering levees to combat issues of flooding, only to return to reinforcing or rebuilding according to damages inflicted as time progressed. Each attempt to fight nature from overwhelming New Orleans kept setting engineers back. Refusal to abandon the coastal areas became more costly over time; the intent to preserve the coast became more valuable than the value of life and property.

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.

10 Years ago on the last week in August, one of the most brutal storms the United States has ever had hit Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. On August 28th and 29th, Fifty-five-foot waves crashed down the Mississippi coast leaving total destruction behind. In New Orleans a levee was built to protect the city but failed in 50 different places due to it being poorly designed. FEMA brought many survivors to their camps, but some weren’t that lucky. In New Orleans about 20,000 residents were trapped in the Louisiana Superdome without clean water, medical care, or working toilets. After the floodwaters receded, over 100,000 residents left the city of New Orleans to never return. 10 years later after the hurricane, most of the affected

As the Assistant Administrator of National Preparedness with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (F.E.M.A.) when Super Storm Sandy made landfall on October 29, 2012, in New Jersey it brought with it storm surges of more than 11 feet, killing more than 100 people (including 43 in New York of which 34 occurred in Queens and Staten Island), destroying or damaging thousands of homes, and leaving more than 8 million people without power.

In the Washington DC area, it is not at all uncommon to see flash flood warnings scroll across the television screen, but nothing comes of it other than some rain. This past weekend, however, during Memorial Day weekend, Ellicott City, Maryland, which sits just outside of the beltway, experienced a horrible flash flood. The death toll still has yet to be announced, as cleanup and the search for survivors has just begun. Two waves of intense flooding hit the town unexpectedly, and with little warning. The town is a quaint little area with cute shops and storefronts, which sits in a valley, and the main street cuts a swath between two higher vistas. Several storms had been forecast earlier that day, and heavy rain was expected, but no one could have predicted such devastation, in such a short amount of time. This is the second massive flash flood to hit this area in as many years, leaving business owners, and residents alike, stunned and heartbroken.

Sandy wiped out at least 125 people in the United States that comprises of 60 in New York, 48 of them in New York City, 34 in New Jersey and 16 in Pennsylvania. The storm dropped heavy snow in West Virginia killing seven people. Sandy killed 71 people in the Caribbean, including 54 in Haiti. Sandy was responsible for creating $62 billion damage and other disasters in the U.S., the huge part of it in New York and New Jersey. It is the second storm in U.S. history for creating financial crisis, after 2005's Hurricane Katrina, which caused $128 billion in damage in inflation-adjusted dollars. Sandy created at least $315 million of destruction in the Caribbean. Sandy ruined or demolished homes and businesses, more than 72,000 in New Jersey alone. In Cuba, the number of blemished homes has been approximated at 130,000 to 200,000.

In 1987 an atmospheric river heated Los Angeles ,the consecutive rain for more than 5 days made this the largest Flood that had happen in Los Angeles. This is best know as the California Great Flood. Houses, infrastructure, landfill were under water and hundreds of people die. This Flood has been the most expensive flood recorder in Los Angeles history. Billions of dollars were the total sum of losses left by the Flood as a result the entire state of california was declared in bankruptcy. Los angeles is not a place where hurricanes are generated due to its location but it is affected by El nino and atmospheric rivers that year after year are increasing its power. Is a vulnerable city where flood can occur at anytime , due to it topography

Hurricane Sandy was a devastating storm that affected Countries in the Caribbean as well as the Eastern Seaboard of the United States in late October 2012. From Florida to Maine, sensors along the coast measured the storm surge, and the accompanying winds felt as far inland as Michigan and Wisconsin. The pinnacle of its life it was a Category 3 storm while crossing Cuba, soon after it downgraded to a Category 1 storm. It climaxed once more as a Category 2 hurricane and the winds covering over 1,000 miles across the diameter. Even though the storm was not as strong as it could have been, the effects were severe due to the location of where it made landfall.

The methodology used was to utilize the Recurrence Interval formula (R) = (N+1)/M, to determine the recurrence interval and magnitude of historical floods provided on the Stream Gauge Data of Peak Flood Discharges on Clearwater River in Hazard City. Also, I reviewed the flood insurance map to

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).”