A PPT ON FLOOD

2. A natural disaster is a major adverse agent
resulting from natural processes of the Earth;
examples include floods, volcanic eruptions,
earthquakes, tsunamis, and other geologic
processes. A natural disaster can cause loss of
life or property damage, and typically leaves
some economic damage in its wake, the severity
of which depends on the affected population's
resilience, or ability to recover.

3. A flood is an overflow of water that submerges land which is normally dry.
The European union(EU) floods directive defines a flood as a covering by
water of land not normally covered by water. In the sense of "flowing
water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Flooding
may occur as an overflow of water from water bodies, such as a river or
lake, in which the water overtops or breaks levees, resulting in some of that
water escaping its usual boundaries, or it may occur due to an accumulation
of rainwater on saturated ground in an areal flood.

4. As we know that a flood happens when too much
rain , brought by storms and strong winds, falls
and cannot be absorbed by the soil. Rivers burst
their banks and the water spills onto the land.
Strong winds blowing across the sea make huge
waves that surge onto the land and flood coastal

5.  River flood
Rivers floods
happen when rivers and
streams cannot carry
away all the extra water
that falls as rain or comes
from melting snow. The
water rises in the rivers
and streams and overflows
onto normally dry land.

6.  Coastal flooding
Coastal flooding can
be caused by strong winds blowing waves
onto the land. Hurricanes and major
storms produce most coastal floods.
Very high tides and tsunamis also flood
the coasts. In many countries, large
groups of people live along the coasts
and for these people coastal flooding
can be very serious. Thousands of people
have been drowned in coastal flooding in
many parts of the world.

7.  Flash Floods
A flash flood is a
quick flood caused by a sudden
cloudburst or thunder storm. Huge
amounts of water fall in a short
time and in cities and towns the
drains overflow and roads become
flooded. Flash floods also happen
in mountainous areas, where steep
slopes cause the water to travel at
high speeds. The rushing water
erodes the soil, washing it away
down the slopes. Flash floods often
occur rapidly and with little
warning.

8. Humans may also
cause flood
Fl oods somet i mes occur when
art i f i ci al st ruct ures such as dams
f ai l . I f t he dam i s poorl y
desi gned or bui l t i n a pl ace
where eart hquakes and l andsl i des
occur, t he dam wi l l break and t he
wat er f l oods t he l and. One dam
f ai l ure i n t he Uni t ed St at es of
Ameri ca occurred i n 1972 when a
dam used t o st ore wast e f rom a
coal mi ne as wel l as
wat er, col l apsed af t er t hree days
of rai n. The f l ood drowned 118

9. Deadliest floods
Death toll Event Location Date
100,000 Hanoi and Red River Delta flood North Vietnam 1971
100,000 1911 Yangtze river flood China 1911
100,000+ St. Felix's Flood, storm surge Netherlands 1530
145,000 1935 Yangtze river flood China 1935
2,500,000–3,700,000 1931 China floods China 1931
230,000 Indian Ocean tsunami Indonesia 2004
231,000
Banqiao Dam failure, result of
Typhoon Nina. Approximately 86,000
people died from flooding and another
145,000 died during subsequent
disease.
China 1975
500,000–700,000 1938 Yellow River (Huang He) flood China 1938
900,000–2,000,000 1887 Yellow River (Huang He) flood China 1887

10.  Physical Effects
Massive damage can occur
following a devastating flood. Homes,
automobiles, buildings, historical monuments,
graves, sewer systems, bridges and countless
other infrastructures can be destroyed by
nature's water pressure. Roadways often
suffer, particularly ones already cracked and
aging. While many buildings and homes might
dry out to the point of being habitable again,
the moisture remaining within walls, flooring
and roofing may cause serious mold problems
that will eventually wear the home away and
create health dangers.

11. Local city, county and state
governments often spend large sums of
money in the search, rescue, recovery
and rebuilding efforts. Affected
businesses are usually shut down for a
long period of time. Employees and
business owners alike suffer from a
loss of income. Significant economic
effects usually follow extremely
damaging flood areas.

12. Major floods pose great
risk for everyone in the flooding
vicinity. Particularly high flooding
often claims the lives of drowning
victims. If people and animals
residing in the flooded area can't
get to food, medications or
treatments to survive, more lives
can be lost. The physical damage
done to buildings and cars often

13.  Even after two weeks of rescue operations
uncertainty prevails over the number of casualties
and people still stuck in what is described as the
worst natural disaster that has ever struck the
northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. The Chief
Minister of the mountainous state, Vijay says
that the exact number of deaths in the calamity
will never be known as estimates of the actual
casualties vary from hundreds to several
thousands.
One senior official claims that
the death toll could exceed 10,000. According to
state officials, 3,000 people are still missing
from the region.

14.  Most of the victims identified so far have been outsiders who
were on the char dham yatra pilgrimage to Uttarkhand’s shrines
of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamnotri, which takes
place between May and November. This is one of the reasons
that the tragedy in the tiny state has impacted the whole
nation.
During peak season every year hordes of pilgrims
come from across India and abroad to visit hilly pilgrimage
centers accessible only by small roads, which believers travel
with the help of mules. For Hindus, the journey to the four
shrines carries a similar level of importance as Haj does for
Muslims.
The inaccessibility of the terrain and breakdown
in communication made it difficult to assess the enormity of the
damage in the first few days after incessant rain started on June
16. Subsequent cloudbursts wiped out town after town and
ravaged hundreds of villages.

15.  Describing the magnitude of the
problem, the CNN-IBN correspondent
Karma Palijor, who has been reporting
from the area for almost two weeks,
told The Diplomat that “India has
never seen this kind of tragedy. It’s
worse than the tsunami (of 2004).
The tsunami killed many, but it came
and was gone. Here, the bigger
challenge has come after the
devastation with the rescue
operation; to bring people stranded in
the middle of nowhere to a safer

16.  Reports coming from the state narrate the bone
chilling stories of eye witness accounts, detailing
three days of unprecedented devastation that
claimed an untold number of lives.
At the center of the hardest hit
area was the temple town of Kedarnath, 11,000
feet above sea level. News reports suggest that at
least 10,000 to 12,000 people visit the hilly town
every day during the peak pilgrimage season.
The latest figures released by the Uttarakhand
government indicated that 2,375 villages were
affected by floods and landslides, of which 739
are still cut off, but are receiving relief supplies.
Based on first-hand
information, Palijor said that hundreds of villages
lying on both sides of the Bhagirathi and
Alaknanda rivers have been all but washed off the
map, with little hope of rehabilitation.
It will take between weeks and
months until rescue operations are completed, and
years before the state can be rebuilt.

17.  uttarakhand has been at the receiving end of nature’s fury in
recent years. In 2008-2009, the state experienced severe
drought. And in 2010, people grappled with floods, flash floods,
landslides and cloudbursts.
But the severity of the tragedy hitting the state
this time has raised some very valid questions: How much of the
devastation is the result of climate change? And to what it
extent was it induced by unplanned development by the state?
Indrajit Bose of the centre for science and
environment, a New Delhi-based environmental think tank,
told The Diplomat, “The devastation is the combined result of
man’s folly and nature’s fury. Because of the way development
has been going on in the state, this disaster was just waiting to
happen. You cannot change the course of the two important rivers
– Bhagirathi and Alaknanda – and expect nature to accept this
tampering.”
Pointing to the state’s draft plan on climate change,
Bose underlines the draft’s finding that “Uttarakhand is most
vulnerable to climate-mediated risks.”
In short, the indiscriminate increase in tourism
wreaked havoc on the environmentally vulnerable state.

18.  In short, the indiscriminate increase in
tourism wreaked havoc on the
environmentally vulnerable state.
According to the 2011 census,
Uttarkhand's population was 10.8 million.
The state hosted 20.68 million pilgrims and
tourists in 2010-2011. Since then, the four
pilgrimage centers saw a fourfold increase in
the number of pilgrims as year-round access
to the shrines – previously restricted to four
months – was allowed.
News magazine Tehelka writes
that, according to the state official in
charge of monitoring vehicles, around
100,000 vehicles – 50-60 percent of them

19.  Taking a cue from the recent tragedy, the state government
announced that construction will no longer be allowed on the
state’s river banks. Further, CM Bahuguna announced the
establishment of a state Rehabilitation and Reconstruction
Authority, which will draft plans to rebuild and develop the
flood-hit areas of the state.
But before rehabilitation starts the greater challenge
for the state and the Indian government is finding the missing
persons who number in the thousands.
The tragic floods of Uttarakhand are a warning to all
hilly states in India to stop playing with nature in the name of
economic development.