Urban Floods | Floods in the Big Cities
Urban floods can be the deadliest and most destructive flood type. Learn more here…
There are several types of floods like flash floods, coastal floods, and urban floods. Urban ones happen in populated areas where the water cannot go anywhere. Too much rain can cause the streets to be flooded, and in severe cases, the houses. This can cause a lot of problems, like contaminated drinking water. If the floods are big enough, houses and businesses can be damaged or even washed away. In this post, we will go further into urban flooding.
This post is all about urban floods.
Swift Urban Floods
Where are These Floods Most Common in the U.S.?
The first section of this post will be where urban floods are most common in the U.S. Even though the most common urban flooding places in the world are in Asia, the U.S. has still its fair share of this flood type. Some common cities in the U.S. for this are Houston, TX, Miami, FL, and New Orleans, LA. New Orleans is especially prone to it due to its swampy area with many rivers in and around the city. One common reason for urban floods in the U.S. is hurricanes since they bring in a lot of water from the ocean. One example is Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Houston got up to 60 inches of rain in some areas over four days, which caused major flooding in the city.
Urban Flooding Causes
There are several causes of urban floods. The first one that will be mentioned is hurricanes. Hurricanes have two ways of getting water to land, rainfall and storm surge. The rainfall causes this type of flooding, inundating cities. Flooding can happen from hurricanes way after the hurricane made landfall. For example, in Hurricane Ida, New England states and cities received large amounts of rainfall flooding, including some large cities like Boston and New York City. Urban Flooding can also be caused by large storm complexes, or even just one isolated storm.
Damage From Flooding
Urban floods can cause much more damage than ones that are not in cities just because of how much more there is in the city. Flooding can be minor and just cause minor damage like water going into buildings, but other times it can be more severe. When it gets a little higher, the water can wash away cars and parts of the road, also bringing a bunch of mud into the city. When flooding gets really quick and high, it can cause major damage to houses and businesses as pictured above. Those buildings can also be swept off of their foundations into the streets. The damage that floods cause can go up into the billions.
Urban Flooding Solutions
The last section of this post will be on urban flood solutions. For hurricanes, one solution is levees that stop seawater from getting in. Even though sometimes they can break, like in Hurricane Katrina, levees can survive most hurricanes. Reservoirs are another solution for any type of heavy rainfall that is fit for areas of any population. Having more plants and trees to take in the water is a great solution that some cities are using now, too. Temporary solutions for homes to stop water from getting in can be objects such as sandbags to stop water from getting in. There are also many common solutions for less populated areas like dams.
