You’ve heard of or have read about the word “floodplain” before, maybe in this site, in news articles, or in any other sites. But what is a floodplain? It is actually a flat area of land that is next to a stream or a river that is frequently or occasionally being flooded. The flat area of land can either be dry or semi-dry area, but as long as water naturally flows in these areas when water levels rise, these areas are considered as floodplains. The frequent flooding of an area help shape the fl…

Flood warnings work best if they remain simple. Placing too complicated definitions behind warning signals only causes confusion among the public. This is why some governments failed in their flood warning systems. Also a factor is the process on how they arrive with specific warning signals. Agencies and other organizations involve in the overall government flood control and warning network might not have understood the full concept of their own warning system causing inadequate or wrong warnin…

People are already saying it, the recent floods that hit Britain were the worst ones to hit the country in the last 60 years. The floods that happened in late July were a culmination of events that started of months before. The month of April was the hottest April on record in Great Britain. Most of the country received practically little or no rain for the whole month. Then when June came, rain poured in and it poured in hard. Immediately, dozens of homes in villages like Cornish of Boscastle b…

According news reports and relief efforts, more than 20 million people have been affected by floods in South Asia due to torrential monsoon rains. Most of the victims and the bulk of the damage can be isolated to two countries, Bangladesh and India. Bangladesh is one of the most flood-prone countries in the region. An estimated 80 million people are said be vulnerable to flooding each year. India, on the other hand, has not less than 40 million hectares at risk from annual floods from monsoon ra…

I was watching a short video clip the other day which reminded me of how hard-headed and stupid humans can sometimes get. The video showed a lady driving into an obviously deep flooded road. And as expected, her car’s engine stopped where the floodwaters is about knee-deep. We have seen this kind of situation time and time again. We know that we should not enter flooded roads, especially deep flooded ones, and yet when we are presented with such a predicament we always think that we can outdo th…