Violent Planet
Floods

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Floods

Flash floods can spell enormous death tolls and unprecedented destruction to towns and infrastructure. But in some parts of the world they're annually welcomed...

  • There are two basic types of floods: river floods, when water climbs above the edges of a river, and (more dangerously) flash floods, when a large quantity of water rapidly sweeps over an area. Flash floods are caused by heavy intense rainfall, over saturated or frozen soil, high river, reservoir and stream levels, ice jams in rivers and urbanization.


  • Just six inches of fast moving floodwater is enough to knock you off your feet and two feet of water will easily sweep a car away. Flash flooding in India resulted in scores of elephants being swept away from the Nameri game reserve.


  • In 2005 the US National Weather Service reported more people die each year in floods, than by lightning, tornados or hurricanes. More than half of these fatalities occur inside vehicles.


  • In 1889 Johnstown, Pennsylvania was a bustling industrial town populated mainly by German and Welsh immigrants. On 31 May, following three days of torrential rain, the nearby South Fork dam burst and sent a stream almost 60 feet in height towards town at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour. The total death toll was 2,209; 99 entire families were wiped out. In order to finance the rebuilding work, the Pennsylvania State Legislature imposed an emergency tax (10%) on all alcohol. This tax was never repealed.


  • Even the driest regions on earth can experience flooding. In 2003 the Sahara desert experienced its heaviest rains in several years, causing wadis (temporal rivers) and temporal lakes to be created.


  • In the UK five million people are vulnerable to flooding each year. Cornwall's Bocastle flood of 2004 was among the most extreme in British history. Incredibly, there were no human casualties but extensive damage was caused throughout the village.


  • The cause of very heavy localised rain (such as Bocastle experienced) has become known as the 'Brown Willy' effect. Named after the hill which is the highest on Bodmin Moor, the Brown Willy effect is a meteorological phenomenon defined as heavy rainfall developing over high ground which then travels long distances downwind. On 27 March 2006, a continuous line of showers stretched from Brown Willy to Oxfordshire - a distance of 145 miles.


  • The story of Noah's Ark (Genesis) is just one of many tales of Deities sending floods to punish civilization; most cultures have a flood tale. According to the apocryphal history of Ireland Lebor Gabala Erenn, the first inhabitants of that country were led by Noah's granddaughter, Cessair, and were all but one wiped out by a flood just 40 days after reaching the island. In Indian texts, there was only one survivor of a terrible flood - a saint named Manu who was saved by Vishnu in the form of a fish.


  • A flash flood in New Zealand swept a goldfish out of its pond and carried it for a mile before it was rescued from a roadside ditch and returned to its owners. They renamed it Nemo.


  • 95% of those who were killed by the 1976 Big Thompson Canyon flood in Colorado, died trying to outrun the water along its path rather than climbing to higher ground.


  • One third of flooded roads and bridges are so damaged by water that any vehicle trying to cross stands only a 50% chance of making it to the other side.


  • A 2002 severe flood in Mozambique caused extensive damage to homes and crops and many animals were left to fend for themselves. Villages in Caia witnessed a skinny dog emerging from the bush, with a tiny monkey clinging to its back - the pair, named Billy and Kiko by the villagers, have been inseparable ever since.


  • In 1864, Sheffield saw one of the worst man-made disasters in British history. The new Dale Dyke Dam was near to completion when a crack was found running along the embankment. Despite various efforts to quickly lower the water level, a large section of the dam collapsed unleashing 650 million gallons of water, which roared down the valley onto the unsuspecting population below. 250 people died and as the flood subsided the scene was said to resemble an eight mile long battlefield.


  • Floods are the most common natural disaster in India. But while the seasonal floods are often responsible for killing thousands and displacing millions, they also provide rice paddy farmers with a largely dependable source of natural irrigation. Not all floods are unwelcome. In some parts of the world, a lack of seasonal flooding, essential for agriculture, can spell disaster.


  • On arriving in Venice in the late 1930s on assignment for the New Yorker magazine, American writer and humourist Robert Benchley telegrammed his editor the words: 'Streets flooded. Please advise.'
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