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One can surely say that floods are the wettest
of natural disasters. Spilling buckets of water, and sometimes
mud, a single flood can destroy an entire town. Still, floods have
a good side too. In fact, most floods can actually benefit the surrounding
land! For the most part, there are two main types of floods. These kinds include a flash flood, and a regular flood. Though both are extremely dangerous, flash floods are often the worse of the two. A flash flood occurs when there is a huge storm with lots of rain. If the rain is heavy enough, a the ground can quickly flood. This is a flash flood. Since flash floods give little early warning, they often kill many more people than regular flood. If meteorologists predict a flash flood is about to occur, they will put the endangered area under a flood watch. The other type of flood is when the ground is covered with water due to a long period of rain, or when a dam or levee breaks. Since a flood that comes from a storm often lasts many days to do any damage, not as many people are killed or injured as there are in other types of floods. A much worse flood will happen when a dam or levee shatters. A levee is a tall wall built around a river to reduce flooding. Unfortunately, when one of these breaks, even more water spills out than usual. Some scientists say that levees are no good, because they allow rivers to hold more water than they could regularly. This makes the floods much more devastating than they usually would be. Still, floods can cause some good for the surrounding land. When a river floods, it is naturally clearing itself of sediment. Since this dirt is almost 100 per cent minerals, it acts as great fertilizer for the flood plains. Because of this, many people have started farms on this land. The only drawback to this is that the floods can often drown out the crops! Still, though floods can often do a lot of damage to the surrounding land. They can be a deadly force of nature, and kill many people. Since the water cycle always continues, floods will always keep occurring. Still, as long as we pay attention to weather channels and pay attention when we are under flood watches, we will remain safe. Always follow safety rules during a flood, and you will surely be safe! |
