In this article I will be talking about what floods are, what causes them, and how do you prepare for a flood.
What are floods? Floods are when there is water everywhere, even when there is usually land. Sometimes floods can be small and only cover a bit of land but other times the water can cover cities! There are three kinds of floods: slow onset floods, rapid onset floods, and flash floods. Slow onset floods is when a lake or a river overflows, this kind of flood is less dangerous because it develops slowly lasting days and even weeks. Rapid onset floods last one or two days, because it still takes some time to develop and you have time to get away from the flood. And now flash floods, these are the most dangerous and occur within a very short time lasting up to 2-6 hours.
What causes floods? Why don’t floods happen whenever it rains? Floods only occur when there is a lot of rain for a while depending on how much rain there is. This is because the ground is like a sponge, the ground can soak up most of the water normally when it rains but after a while it can’t hold anymore and puddles appear. A flood is like a giant puddle that
becomes bigger and bigger over. These Giant puddles can cover roads, cars, and even houses and other buildings, and that is one of the reasons why they are so dangerous. Can you go swimming in a flood? Even though a flood might just look like a lot of water, it can be dangerous. There can be tree branches, trash, and cars under it, and that is not all, the water can also pick up germs that can make you sick if you accidentally drink it or even touch it.
How do you prepare for a flood? Lots of people have emergency kits where you can keep water, food and other things you need to stay safe until the flood is over. If a flood does happen, stay inside and don’t go into your basement if you have one. You also should try not to go too close to the water. In places where floods happen more often there is usually an emergency shelter where you can go if the water gets too close to your home.
Thank you for reading my article about floods. I hope now you have a better understanding about what floods are, why they happen, and how to prepare for floods!