Dangers And Destructions Of Floods And Hurricanes

Term Paper Title	Dangers And Destructions Of Floods And Hurricanes
# of Words	1399
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	5.6

Dangers and Destructions of Floods and Hurricanes

            Dangers and Destructions of Floods and Hurricanes
            Floods and hurricanes have been effecting the lives of people around the world
for years. This research paper is going to state some of the worst floods and hurricanes,
and how future ones can be controlled.
            A flood is an overflow of water on dry land. The two types of floods are coastal
and river floods. Coastal floods are the first topic in this research paper.
            A coastal flood is the flooding of beaches and surrounding areas; including bar
spits and deltas. They can be effected by tidal waves and coastal currents. Coastal floods
can cover a large amount of distance along a shore. The length of time a coastal flood is
dangerous is usually very short. It depends on how high the tide is which goes up and
down twice a day. When the velocities of hurricane winds become severe the height of
the waves become three or more feet higher than the previous high tide. Coastal floods
can be caused by a number of things. Coastal floods can be caused by runoff, hurricane
waves, tsunami (seismic sea waves), and hurricane rains. Coastal flooding can not only
take part on oceans but it can also take part on lakes. Coastal flooding can be a great
danger because coast lines are very densely populated areas. In the United States in the
early 1990's 50% of the population was on a coastal county.1 Although they shrink before
reaching shore, wind generated waves have been spotted to be as high as 30 m (100 ft) in
the middle of the ocean.2 In 1970 a major storm in the Bay of Bengal produced heavy
seas that flooded regions of East Pakistan, killing about 200,000 people.3
            River flooding can happen a number of ways. The causes are rain, snowmelt, and
ice jams. Soil can not absorb as much water with continuos moistening. The longer that
precipitation lasts the more water flows into streams as runoff. Cloudburst floods only
last for a couple hours, but they need a large amount of rainfall. This usually only
happens in mountainous areas. They are called flash floods. Floods occurring from
snowmelt and ice jams do not have to be preceded by heavy rains. Moderate amounts of
rain can make things even worse because the ground does not absorb it. Floods can result
in the failure dams, aqueducts, weirs, landfills, paving, construction, and storm sewers.
They are artificial causes.
            In 1993 when rainfall lasted from April until July in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota,
Missouri, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas, it covered about 16 billion
acres.4 Many deaths and $10 billion in damage was the result flood level records.5 In
March of 1936 snowmelt equaling 10-30 in. of rain occurred in New England.6107
people died and $270 million in damage was done.7 In 1972 at Logan County, West Va. a
dam collapsed following three days of rain. In less than four hours 118 lives had been
taken and $65 million in damages was done.8 In January of 1995 18 counties and several
parts of Calif. were declared disaster areas by President Clinton and 1,000 shelters were
opened.9 A 21 year old Californian surfer watched his house be flooded, but on the bright
side the waves should be good tomorrow. People have paddled past gas stations and are
eating hot dogs and marshmallows for supper. Here is a table concerning the rainfall of
California in January of 1994.
L.A.                                    7.36 in.            .67 in. (average)
San Francisco                     5,28 in.           1.40 in.       "
Sacramento                         6.60 in.          1.10 in.        "
Redding                               9.39 in.          1.50 in.        "
National Weather Service Com. California Department of Water Resources.10
            The averages for deaths and damages since 1970 from floods is 200 deaths and $4
billion in damage.11 It would be much higher if it wasn't for the National Weather
Service River and Flooding Forecasting Service. The National Weat...

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