Yes Flooding IS Inevitable….
But The Damage Is Not!

As you well know

The next flood is coming. Just like the next sunrise, full moon and bad TV sitcom, the next flood is always coming, unless it already here. There is simply no way to avoid that fact. If you live in an area that has flooded before it IS going to flood again. Beyond that, based on recent events and predictions of global warming, the expectations for the next flood, grows higher every day. You’ve seen the expanding flood plain maps being re-drawn by multiple engineering firms under contract to FEMA. From these it’s clear what the “experts” see for the future. These two graphs point out the seriousness of the situation. The number, of reported US flood events, has increased in frequency by an order of 12 times from 1950 to 2000.

With an average annual loss of over $6 billion through 2004 the trend is clear. Expect more floods and higher losses well into the future.
FLOODS ARE INEVITABLE – FLOOD DAMAGE IS NOT
In the past the inevitability of flooding, and the damage it bring was something we all just had to live with. The obvious conclusion from the reality these graphs depict is that this cannot be our attitude or operating philosophy any longer. The cost of inaction is too high and the constant increase in insurance payouts is unsustainable.

Many communities, to their credit, have started to take real steps to reduce the losses. They have requested help from organizations and experts such as FEMA and the USACE to develop long range plans for flood protection. These plans require surveys (new flood plain maps), analysis of the data, design of a solution, engineering, and eventual construction. Each stage takes time and the more difficult component, money. Funding, becomes the limiting factor at each stage of the project and time becomes the enemy, because always, the next flood is coming. Most of the projects take a decade or more to complete. That’s another 10 years, at least, of flood damage, and disaster clean-up for every community that has flooding issues.

Because, for the thousands of years of human civilization, we have had floods and flood damage we consider that damage inevitable. We have viewed the damage as inevitable as the flood it self. However, maybe for the first time in history, we now have ways to erect barriers to protect us from that damage, on an emergency basis.

WHY NOT JUST MOVE?
We could, of course, all just move to high ground, get away from those areas that flood and we wouldn’t have the damage to worry about. This sounds good, but with a roughly 70% of the worlds population living in areas that are coastal or flood threatened, our options for making this kind of wholesale move just aren’t practical. The amount of capital and infrastructure development already in place makes moving to higher ground beyond our means. Add that to the visceral desire that humans have for being in close proximity to water and moving to avoid flooding becomes even more unlikely.

As a culture, we found that fire was a serious danger to homes and commercial property. So we invented and developed things like, fire departments, fire extinguishers, sprinkler systems. We did that because we understood the costs involved in not doing it and because we could. They proved so effective that they have now been written into local laws, local ordinances, engineering and architectural design standards. They are considered absolute necessities for any modern structure. We put vaults in banks and carry umbrellas even when it isn’t raining because we believe that being ready for what is sure to come eventually makes more sense than just hoping it doesn’t happen.

WHAT TO DO NEXT
With regard to flooding and flood damage, however, there has never been a way to provide reliable emergency protection. Of course, we could endeavor to build sandbag dikes, earthen barriers or use material like plywood, plastic sheeting and other unsuitable stuff. People, in need, have and will, use whatever they can find to try and protect valuable and threatened property when the flood is underway. It is a historical fact that in an unacceptably high percentage of cases those efforts were expensive, time consuming and produced results with little or no positive effect. In fact these means are so expensive, time consuming and ineffective that most people simply abandon the flooded areas and hope the damage isn’t too bad. Hope becomes the single most often used strategy for flood damage mitigation.

Permanent barriers are aesthetically unappealing. They restrict access and vistas that are the key attributes we find most valuable in many coastal, river, stream, lake and other waterside resort and recreational areas. For hundreds of weeks in a row we love the water and then for a few days the water rises and during those times we need to protect ourselves and our property. In some cases they are the only good options and are essential. However, in the vast majority of cases permanent walls and barricades are not the best option.

One emergency flood barrier system that has solved many of the drawbacks to other similar products is FLOODWALLS. You can learn more about this new innovative emergency flood barrier at www.floodwalls.com.


1 | Left by Douglas Shackelford | Jul. 9, 2008 at 8:47am