LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Floods: Rivers
built 613 days ago
Floods are a natural and inevitable part of life along the rivers in the United States. The average annual flood loss in the United States cost $3.5 billion, with a maximum loss of $16.4 billion in 1993, the year of "The Great Flood of 1993."
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Floods from the sea can cause overflow or overtopping of flood defences like dikes as well as flattening of dunes or bluffs. Land behind the coastal defence may be inundated or experience damage. A flood from sea may be caused by a heavy storm (storm surge), a high tide, a tsunami, or a combination thereof. As many urban communities are located near the coast this is a major threat around the world. Many rivers flow over relatively flat land border on broad flood plains. When there is much deposition of silt on the rich farmlands it can result in their eventual depletion.
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Floods shaped much of the modern Columbia River’s course. Regular annual cycles of flooding in spring and early summer influenced the anadromous life history of Columbia basin salmon and steelhead. Floods scoured away the topsoil and loser layers of rock, created the channel of the modern river and exposed the solid basalt that is the foundation for many Columbia River dams.
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On the night of October 10th 2000 the worse floods in South-east England for 40 years began. The rivers of Kent and Sussex already had very high water levels because of significant rainfall. In just 72 hours, North-west Kent and East Sussex had 18cm (7 inches) of rainfall. 13cm of this had fallen in just 12 hours. 16 severe flood warnings were issued by the EA for rivers in Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. In some places the water flowed over the river banks and towns and villages were flooded.
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Wide areas of the United States began counting the cost of three days of floods, blizzards and tornadoes that have been blamed for 11 deaths. The death toll in southern States stood at 7 after thunderstorms turned streets from Louisiana to Georgia into rivers. In the Midwest, a cold front dumped snow and froze road surfaces causing 4 car accident deaths. Reuters, 3/9/98
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The Corps’ 308 Report of 1932 declared that Columbia floods could be handled by the construction of dikes at communities where damages might occur. The report focused on building dams to provide navigation on the lower Columbia and virtually ignored discussion of upriver water storage projects. Three years later in the 1935 Rivers and Harbors Act, Congress authorized construction of Bonneville and Grand Coulee dams. In fact, the dams already were under construction as New Deal-authorized projects. Grand Coulee would provide water storage, hydropower and flood control; Bonneville would provide hydropower and navigation.
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