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What are the three types of flooding?
AccuWeather
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8/8/2024
There are three distinct types of flooding that can happen during a tropical storm. Do you know what they are?
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00:00
Sometimes there could be a flood of confusion about different flood terms.
00:06
I want to talk about three separate types of flooding.
00:09
We have river flooding, and that's something that is easy to visualize.
00:13
This is long, sometimes after periods of very heavy rain, maybe a day or two or three removed.
00:19
The rivers slowly rise, and they can become long-term problems for days,
00:23
sometimes even weeks on end in very flat areas where there's not much elevation change.
00:28
And lots of roads are often closed.
00:30
This rarely sneaks up on people, quite like flash flooding can.
00:34
But in this case, we're still dealing with big dangers.
00:37
And when roads are closed, obey the barricades.
00:39
Even just six inches of moving water can sweep you off your feet.
00:42
Twelve inches it can carry away most cars.
00:44
Two feet of moving water can carry away large vehicles.
00:47
So that's river flooding.
00:49
Flash flooding is a little more instantaneous.
00:51
This is a short-term, rapid rise, often tied to a thunderstorm or a period of excessive heavy rain.
00:57
And this is a combination of the destructive power of a flood but with the speed.
01:02
And this often catches people by significant surprise.
01:05
A lot of the time, flash flooding happens.
01:07
And then with the same storm event, river flooding will follow as well.
01:11
Storm surge flooding happens with tropical systems.
01:14
This is a totally different animal.
01:15
This actually is not directly tied to rainfall.
01:17
This is a result of the strong winds of a tropical storm or hurricane
01:22
over hundreds and hundreds of miles, sweeping the top layer of water into land.
01:27
And that will lead to coastal inundation.
01:30
During high tide, it becomes especially bad.
01:32
The dunes are there to protect against the storm surge.
01:35
But a lot of the time, with a strong enough storm, the dunes fail.
01:38
And big-time flooding can travel even miles inland.
01:41
There have been cases in southwest Louisiana where the storm surge over a very flat area, like Cameron Parish,
01:47
the storm surge has traveled dozens of miles inland.
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