The different types of flooding.

7/9/2018 (Permalink)

Flooded streets

Did you know that there is 3 Types of Floods? If you didn’t there is, there is Coastal (Surge Flooding), Fluvial (River Flood), and Pluvial (Surface Flood). Each is unique on how much damage it can cause, and how soon the cleanup can be. Here are the ways the 3 are different from each other. 

Coastal (Surge Flooding) -

A coastal flood lies on the coast of a sea, ocean, or other large body of open water. Extreme tidal conditions caused by severe weather such as hurricanes and other storms. These types of storms push water onshore which causes coastal flooding. In this type of flood, water overwhelms low-lying land and often causes devastating loss of life and property.

Coastal Flooding is categorized in three levels:

Minor: A small amount of beach erosion will occur but no major damage is expected.

Moderate: A fair amount of beach erosion will occur as well as damage to some homes and businesses.

Major: Serious threat to life and property. Large-scales beach erosion will occur, numerous roads will be flooded, and many structures will be damaged.

Fluvial (River Flooding) –

River, or riverine flooding, occurs when excessive rainfall over an extended period of time causes a river to exceed its capacity. Snow melt and Ice jams can also cause the river to spill over. The damage from the fiver flood can be widespread as the overflow affects smaller rivers downstream.

There are two main types of riverine flooding:

• Overbank flooding occurs when water rises overflows over the edges of a river or stream. This is the most common and can occur in any size channel. Anywhere from streams, to rivers.
• Flash flooding can be intense, high velocity torrent of water that occurs in an existing river channel with little to no notice. Flash floods are very dangerous, and destructive not only because of the force of the water, but also the hurling debris that is often swept up in the flow.

Pluvial (Surface Flood) -

Surface water flood is caused when heavy rainfall creates a flood event independent of an overflowing water body. You don’t have to be near a body of water to be out of a flood risk, it can even happen in urban areas.