Many of us have this idea that floods (or flooding) are simply too much water around your house. People think that can be fun. Wrong. Flooding is a lot more than that.

Flooding is extremely dangerous and has the potential to wipe away an entire city, coastline, or area, and cause extensive damage to life and property. It also has great erosive power and can be extremely destructive, even if it is a foot high.

What is flooding?

It is a natural event or occurrence where a piece of land (or area) that is usually dry land, suddenly gets submerged. Some floods can occur suddenly and recede quickly. Others take days or even months to build and discharge. When floods happen in an area that people live, the water carries along objects like houses, bridges, cars, furniture, and even people. It can wipe away farms, trees, and many more heavy items.

Floods occur at irregular intervals and vary in size, duration, and the affected area.

It is important to note that water naturally flows from high areas to low lying areas. That means low-lying areas may flood quicker before it begins to get to higher ground.

In this lesson, we shall see more about what causes flooding, the types of flooding, some effects of floods, and what we can do before, during, and after floods occur.