Talks about global warming have surfaced and resurfaced, national and international rules of law are being carried out, but up to now, very few people have knowledge on the basics of this phenomenon. This is a disturbing fact, moreso because global warming is a universal concern and as such, we should all be involved in the effort to eradicate, or at the very least, to lessen the harm that it will likely cause.

Global Warming Defined

In the most simplistic terms, global warming is defined as the recent increase in the average temperature of the atmosphere near the Earth’s surface. This increase is caused by the emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities. The word greenhouse gases refers to the components which absorb water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide, and ozone. In the event that these gases would be absorbed fully, the temperature of the Earth would then be too hot to be inhabitable.

Effect of Global Warming

There are many environmental effects of global warming. These are inclusive of Arctic shrinkage or the marked decrease in Arctic sea ice and the glacial retreat which would cause a significant loss in the low elevation region of a glacier. Additionally, extreme weather conditions, worldwide sea level rise, and changes in the amount and pattern of precipitation which is likely to result in drought and flood, are also distinct environmental effects of global warming.

Of course, the occurrence of these disasters would make it extremely difficult for us all to recuperate, as these would ultimately cause irreversible social, political, and economic damages.

Taking Action

With all of the serious complications that come with the global warming phenomenon, it is crucial that we do our part in combating the upsurge of the effects of global warming. One way of doing this is by conserving carbon dioxide, one of the gases that are being depleted by greenhouse gases.

Here are a few things we can do to step up and take action:

Save carbon dioxide by:

- keeping your car tires adequately inflated

- buying a hybrid car

- changing your car’s air filter every month

- patronizing recycled paper

- unplugging electronic devices when not in use

- using compact fluorescent bulbs

- planting trees

By doing such things, you do your part in ensuring that the effects of global warming can be lessened an thus help prevent our already vulnerable environment from the threat of increasing sea levels.

Posted in Floods

Be prepared. In the event of a flood, there are a few simple ways to protect your home and belongings from being damaged.

• Create your own emergency flood plan.
  • Check your insurance cover
• Know where your gas, electricity and water mains are located in advance of a flood.
• Think about what you would want to move to safety during a flood
  • Keep all of your electrical items as high up in your house as possible.
  • Store important documents in a waterproof sealed bag in a safe location from flood water.
• Think about what you can move now
  • Park your car on higher ground to avoid damage.
  • Outdoor pets
  • Cars
  • Furniture
  • Garden equipments
• Prepare a flood kit of essential items
• Know who to contact and how
• Know your local flood codes.

Preparing Your Own Flood Defenses

Depending on your location, your local council will make sandbags available to as many residents as possible for them to protect their homes from flooding.

If your home is at a high risk of flooding, it is best to have your own supply. You local builders merchant can supply them to you.

Check the market for various flood protection products. A lot of these products can installed in advance and can be simply removed and put back again whenever needed. Examples of these are the flood board and air brick cover. Available also are plastic skirts to surround your whole property; temporary free-standing barriers which can protect a group of properties. Check with your local environment agency for the list or removable flood defence products, including their suppliers.

Posted in Floods, Preparation

Though the flooding in central England nearly a year ago were very severe, a scientific analysis on the event say that they cannot be linked to climate change.The magnitude of last July’s flooding prompted experts to say that they were due to climate change and an indication of similar summer-time flooding to come.

But, as per the report published by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Wallingford, experts say that there is a trend for less flooding during summers and more rainfall during winters. Researchers of said institute analyzed flooding trends for the last fourty years all across England, and arrived at this conlusion.

Terry Marsh of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology said “the raindfall…was remarkable” and it fired speculations that the increasingly risky floods are due to global warming. “Due to the inherent variability of the UK climate, any extreme hydrological event cannot readily be linked directly to climate change” said Marsh.

The researchers also added that a historical view showed how truly phenomenal last year’s floods were. The affected areas include Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, and towns along the rivers Severn and Avon.

Reviewing data that went back to 1766, from May to July last year, the average rainfall for England and Wales was 415 mm. This is the highest ever recorded. In a table showing the 15 wettes years only one other year occurred in the 20th century - 1924. In summer of that year (May to July), 308 mm of rainfall fell. That is 107 mm less than last year’s and is said to be the equivalent of seven weeks of average rainfall.

The detailed data on the river flows for the last 40 years only supports the theory that last years flooding was exceptional. Marsh and Jamie Hannaford show, in an analysis in the International Journal of Climatology, that river flows did increas but the said increases are mostly confined to the north and west. Hannaford said that “This trend is driven by an increase in, generally, winter high flows”. Thus, last year’s summer floods happened in the wrong season and the wrong place which means that “The summer 2007 floods don’t really fit into these patterns.”

The increase in winter flooding would fit prediction of some climate modellers for wetter winters and dryer summers. But, Hannaford said that it cannot be accurately determined whether the trends in the data are due to global warming. The British climate is too inconsistent from year to year to know for certain. Hannford adds “We have only 40 years of data which generally is too short to determine whether or not these trends are caused by any underlying climatic mechanism.” And even if the rainfall increases due to climate change, it might actually lowers the flood risks at some times of a year because there would be less snow melt in spring and the higher temperatures dry soild earlier.

Marsh said that climate change could even provide a “silver lining” due to the fact that drier summers could limit the winter flood period because the soil would absorb more water.

Posted in Floods

Flooding hazards can be divided as primary, secondary and tertiary. Primary hazards are those that occur due to contact with flood water. Secondary effects are those that occur as direct effect of flooding such as disruption of services (such as power interruptions) and health impacts such as famine and disease. A sample of a tertiary effect, on the other hand, are changes in the position of river channels. Flooding is considered to be one of the most devastating disasters in terms of cost as reflected to property damages and life casualties. Major floods in China had surfaced a number of casualties: 2 million people in 1887, 4 million in 1932 and about 1 million in 1938. Another destructive flood is that of the Upper Mississippi River, despite only 47 people were killed, an economic loss from 15 to 20 million dollars was estimated.Direct contact with flood waters compromises the primary effects of floods. Floods with an increase of discharge increases velocity, and with higher velocities, streams could transport large particles such as rocks and sediments. Floods can cause erosion, wall, floor and furniture damages. Flooding in farmland can results in crop loss. Livestock, pets and other animals are often carried away and drown. Even humans can get carried away and drown. It could also concentrate on garbage, debris and toxic pollutants that can cause secondary effects.

Secondary effects are direct results of the primary effects. Basically, these are disruption of services. Pollution of drinking water is the greatest example and it can cause diseases especially in under developed countries. Gas and electrical service may also be disrupted, as well as transportation systems. Disruption of transportation systems can even lead to shortages of food and clean up supplies.

Tertiary effects are the long term changes that take place due to flooding. Location of river channels may change as the result of flooding, new channels develop, leaving the old channels dry. It can also lead to the destroy of farmlands due to sediment deposits. Jobs may be lost due to the disruption of services and destruction of business. Destruction of wildlife habitat is another effect.

Posted in Floods

About 80 years ago, one of the worst flooding in the history of the United States devastated seven states and placed more than 26,000 square miles of land under water. Affected were the states of Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee.

The 1927 Mississippi flood began a year before when torrential rains fell in the region. The area experienced extraordinary heavy rains during the summer of 1926 and went on through winter until spring. The record rains was ten time more than the previous years. The Mississippi river is known to overflow its banks on a  regular basis. But because of the heavy rains, floods began to occur in the lower Mississippi area during the early months of 1927. And every time a flooding occurs, it bested the previous one in magnitude, area covered, and damages incurred.

By February 1927, the Mississippi has inundated more than 100,000 acres with ten to fifteen feet of water. The coverage grew to as big as one million acres of land by April 9. And yet the rains still continue to fall. The US Army Corps of Engineers assured the public that the levees that they built to control the regular rise of the Mississippi would hold. But this was no ordinary rise in the water level of the river.

On April 15, 1927, more rains came. The rainfall was already a record high and yet there seems to be no break from the downpour. Rains fell in the states of Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, and Louisiana.

Soon the river overpowered the levees which the Army has, at some areas, stacked up from an original 7 feet to as high as 38 feet. Nature again proved that she is more powerful than man. One of the biggest breaks in the levees was at Mounds Landing where the water from the river flooded an area more than 50 miles wide and 100 miles long. Trees, cotton fields, houses and infrastructure, and whole communities went under 20 to 30 feet of water.

The flood waters began to withdraw back to the river by July 1. However, more than 1.5 million acres of land was still under water. Even so, the river still measured an unbelievable 70 miles wide.

The 1927 Mississippi flood is permanently written down in history as among the worst mother nature dished at us. The flood waters claimed more then 500 lives, and made more than 700,000 people homeless, not to mention the millions in damages it brought to the infrastructure and agriculture in the area.

There were a number of socio-political issues that came out because of the 1927 flood. Among them was the maltreatment of Southern blacks in the refugee camps. The floods also catapulted then Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover to the presidency since he was in charge of the flood relief operations. He got the blacks’ vote when he promised reforms for their better treatment but lost it four years later in his reelection bid when he broke most of his promises.

Posted in Floods

A lot of areas in UK are at high risk of being flooded. The series of floods that hit England and Whales these past few months is a testament to that fact. There are an estimated 5 million people and around 470,000 properties in England and Wales situated in flood risk areas.

Floods have always been a major issue in Britain because they happen quite frequently, affects a large number of people, wrecks considerable amount of properties, and are very very costly.

June 2007 was one of the wettest months in the history of the UK and the above than average rainfall brought forth floods after floods, causing an estimated damage of £2billion. But the bad thing in this situation is the fact that things will get worse in time. With the climate changing quite drastically in recent years, it is expected that similar wet months are to be expected in the next forty years.

Having this foreboding scenario in their midst, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs or Defra launched a new scheme to protect or at least minimize the effects of households from the devastating effects of floods. The government offers individual households grants for improving their own flood defenses.

Improving the properties’ flood resilience can protect them from major damage in case of floods. Flood defenses include setting up flood guards, tiled concrete floors, resilient plaster, and raising electrical appliances on a higher grounds or platforms.

Installing one-way valves into drainage pipes is also useful. This way, the water and sewage is prevented from backing up into the house during floods. If you have any chipboard appliances or units, it is best to replace them with plastic or steel since later materials will not get soggy when they get wet. .

Reposition your electrical sockets higher up the walls. Use lime plaster or cement render to re-plaster the inner walls. These plaster are made from water resistant materials.

Speaking of water -resistant, the doors and window frames could be made from UPVC or good-quality hardwood to make them more resilient to water. Place barriers on your doors, windows and airbricks. A pump system can also be used. The pump would get the water from the first floor once the water starts to get in.

Defra split £500,000 between six areas as part of the pilot flood resilience program. The areas are Uckfield in East Sussex, Bleasby in Nottinghamshire, Morecambe in Lancashire, Halton in Leeds and Kirkby-in-Furness and Appleby in Cumbria.

Another problem with having areas and properties flooded all the time is when applying for home insurances. It has been reported that due to the massive damage of recent flooding in the UK, insurers are no longer willing to give homeowners low premiums on house insurance payments.

According to reports, it is quite possible that the value of houses affected and damaged by the floods would decrease by as much as 80%. This is due to the refusal of insurers to cover their houses because of possible future claims of the same nature.

Posted in Floods

People are already saying it,  the recent floods that hit Britain were the worst ones to hit the country in the last 60 years. The floods that happened in late July were a culmination of events that started of months before.

The month of April was the hottest April on record in Great Britain. Most of the country received practically little or no rain for the whole month. Then when June came, rain poured in and it poured in hard. Immediately, dozens of homes in villages like Cornish of Boscastle became waterlogged after  torrential rain.

Then continuous rains cause flooding in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Wales, Kent, the West Midlands, Worcestershire, and Northern Ireland. What was thought to be a dry spell became the wettest summer in Great Britain’s history. Flooding across the country resulted to thousands of people needing evacuation and heavy damage on human properties. The flooding that month of June was declared to be a one time event. Again, people’s assumptions and generalizations were later proved wrong.

July 20, Friday marked another first in the history of UK. Almost non-stop torrential rains flooded the roads in London, Dorset Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Surrey. Hampshire, Leicestershire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and again the West Midlands suffered severe floods. The amount of water that poured from the sky on that day was great that in some areas the rain pour  was equivalent of a month’s worth.

Rivers across the Midlands began to swell, causing river water to swell towards nearby neighborhoods. The thousands of affected people in the July floods were immediately doubled, or even tripled. In the town of Gloucestershire alone, around 350,000 people were evacuated from the swelling rivers and rising flood waters.

The Friday rains also flooded the center of England putting many more towns submerged or cut off. England was paralyzed together with the towns and villages submerged in flood waters.

After the flood waters and the river ways receded, what was left was more than a million people affected. The final toll was nine dead, millions of people affected, several towns without electricity, and had no drinking water either since fresh water pumps had been overwhelmed by flood waters.

Even if Britain considered the floods these last two months as unprecedented and broke records in the country’s history, they should consider themselves fortunate. When some countries in Asia endures torrential monsoon rains, most often than not the results are huge floods, bigger death toll, bigger number of people stranded or affected, and a bigger total amount of damages. It seems when it comes to calamities, everything else seems to be bigger in Asia.

Posted in Floods

We all know that floods are extremely dangerous and can cause a lot of damage to our homes, communities and even to human lives. A number of flood victims have received superficial to fatal injuries due to negligence, at times due to their stubbornness, but most of the times because of their ignorance on basic flood safety. We can never stress enough the importance of keeping yourself informed in these kinds of situations. Planning ahead is also a vital key to protect not only yourself from injuries but your loved ones and properties as well.

The following are some basic facts that you should know about floods. Some address flood safety directly while others contain general tips on what to do before, during, and after floods.

Flowing flood water is dangerous
Here’s a tip: when you see that flood waters are flowing or moving, don’t attempt to walk through. You don’t know how swift the flood water is moving or how swift it would still get, so avoid crossing moving floodwaters altogether. A mere six inches of swiftly moving flood waters can easily knock you off your feet and can drown you in an instant. Risks of facing such situations are higher during flash floods. When cases where it is absolutely necessary to walk through floodwaters, use a stick or pole to test if the water is moving or not.

Avoid driving through floods
Just like walking through floodwaters, driving through flooded areas is a also a dangerous practice. Two feet of moving floodwaters can render your vehicle useless and can sweep you car easily. It may not be comforting to hear, but most people who drowned during floods drowned inside their cars. Also, floodwaters can easily hide road barriers, potholes, open man holes, etc. which can immobilize your car or cause some serious damage to your vehicle.

Avoid areas with drowned power lines and electrical wires
As you very well know, electricity travels well through water. Sadly, electrocution remains to be a common reason for fatalities during floods. You need to report submerged power lines to your local power company so they can immediately cut down the power in that area. The same goes with your home. Be sure to shut down all electrical circuits or main switches in your house.

Keep a keen eye on the streets
When you’re walking on a flooded area, be sure to walk slowly and carefully. Aside from the fact that floodwater depth can be very deceptive, floods can easily cover road obstructions. You don’t want to fall down into an open manhole especially in a flood.

Keep an eye for boulders, trees, debris, etc.
Floodwaters, especially during flash floods can carry a variety of debris including parts of houses, rocks, trees, and even small animals. These objects can entangle you or cause injuries that can result to you drowning in the flood waters. Look out for snakes since they are known to be good swimmers.

Posted in Floods

Although flooding, generally, is a bane to most people out there I can’t help but bring your attention to the fact that floods can be quite beneficial. Actually, believe it or not, nature benefits more from natural floods than from not having them at all. The thing that makes natural floods a disaster is when flood waters occur in areas populated by humans and in areas of significant human development. Otherwise, when left in its natural state, the benefits of floods outweigh the adverse effects.

Let’s begin with river flooding. Rivers overflow for reasons like excess rainfall. The good thing about river overflows is the fact that as flood waters flow into the banks, sand, silt and debris are deposited into the surrounding land. After the river water subsided and go back to its normal flow, the deposited materials will help make the land richer or more fertile. The organic materials and minerals deposited by the river water keeps the soil fertile and productive. However, too much sand deposit will do the opposite. For farmers that maintain their crops along rivers, they should not feel threatened by yearly flooding. This gives their farm lands better soil consistencies and keeps their land fertile resulting to better harvests each year. Instead of preventing the natural flow of river floods, it might be beneficial in the long run to allow the flood waters to encroach into their lands. It was how nature intended it to be in the first place. However, there may be limits to how much farmers can tolerate such natural occurrences. One has to increase production to feed the demands of the human populace.

Great examples of how river overflows benefit humans are in the Nile river and the Mississippi delta. Farmers in Egypt have long equated river floods to high harvest rates. The higher the flood waters from the river, the better the harvest for that year. However, the case of the Mississippi delta is a little different. The Mississippi river naturally overflows and leaving behind huge deposits of sediments. In time these sediments created lands which are now identified as part of the Mississippi delta. But when humans began settling in along the river banks, they constructed complicated and elaborate systems to prevent or control the flood waters from the Mississippi river. Without the regular sediment deposits that the land along the area of the Mississippi delta receives from the river, the land begins to sink. Each year the Mississippi delta becomes dryer and sink more and more.

Floods are also known to renew wetland areas which in turn hosts a wide range of flora and fauna. Preventing flood waters from entering such wetland areas will create imbalance to the natural state of things resulting to destruction of natural habitats and even extinction of various species of animals and plants.

In conclusion, we can say the floods plays an important part in various ecosystems. Humans, therefore, should be careful when they try to prevent or control floods. Oftentimes, human intervention causes more harm than good.

Posted in Floods

Believe it or not, there are several types of floods. You already know what flooding is. To refresh your memory, flooding involves the overflowing of water onto land. There are more than 20,000 communities in the United States which are classified as highly susceptible of being flooded. These communities may be near rivers, small streams, beneath hillsides, or even near the deserts. The point of the matter is, flooding can occur in any place and in any time. The degree of flooding will vary from place to place. Some floods can only be a few inches high while others can be as high as ten feet with strong current. Some floods will last for just a few minutes while other areas can remain flooded for days or even weeks.

The River Flood

This kind of flood occurs because of the sudden rise of the water in the river. Commonly attributed reasons for the rise of the water level in rivers is too much rain which usually comes from atmospheric conditions like tropical storms. Sometimes, the combination of rainfall and snow melt can be disastrous for communities living near river systems. The rising river can attack without warning. It is best that you monitor how fast the river rises during extremely strong and long downpours.

The Coastal Flood

Quite similar to river floods in a sense that both are caused by hurricanes, tropical storm, or tropical depressions. The only difference is that coastal floods happen in the coastlines. The strong winds and rains can produce storm surges that not only overwhelms coastal areas but also pushes the sea water towards the shores. If you add in the element of tides, then it is more than enough to make people worry. Normal tides when it sets in can already cause some minimal coastal flooding, but with the storm tides, strong winds, surging waves and nonstop rains can cause massive coastal floods and can increase the average water level by more than 15 feet.

The Inland Flood

Flooding inland can still be attributed to tropical storms, hurricanes or cyclones. The rains that accompany these kinds of storms can be enough to cause floods in low areas, in places where the ground cannot absorb that too much water, and in places where there’s no outlet for the the excess rain water. When storms move slowly over land, the flooding problem gets worse. Moreover, the problem with inland floods is that certain areas tend to retain flood waters longer. Maybe because of the ground composition or due to human infrastructures or obstacles, these areas will remain flooded for days prolonging the agony of the flood victims.

The Flash Flood

This is perhaps the most dangerous kind of flood there is. Please understand that we are not underscoring the dangers present in the other kinds of floods. Flooding as a rule is very dangerous. However, the thing with flash floods is that they can occur really without significant warning. They cannot be predicted accurately. And because of these things, many have died from flash floods. Normally, a flash flood will occur within six hours of a very strong downpour. Mountain lakes or rivers swelling due to the heavy rainfall can cause massive flash flooding. Dam or levee failures can also cause flash floods. The sudden release of water by an ice jam can also bring forth floods that can damage nearby communities with one quick and giant sweep.

Posted in Floods