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The
power of flood waters can be awesome
Floodwaters can rise unexpectedly in minutes and pose serious risks to life and property, due to sudden and heavy rainfall, the failure of a dam or levee, or even the abrupt release of water when an ice jam or debris jam on a stream breaks up. In flash floods, waters have been known to quickly rise as much as 30 feet, making flash floods the number one weather-related killer in the country. People should never attempt to drive on flooded roadways. According to the National Wealth Service, half of all deaths that occur during floods are vehicle-related. Winter is especially
dangerous for ice jam-related flooding The main stem Susquehanna River is more prone to ice jams and subsequent flooding than any other river east of the Rocky Mountains. 1996 was the third worst after Agnes and 1936 In the winter of 1996, heavy rainfall hit snow-packed and already-saturated ground, causing flash flooding throughout the Susquehanna River Basin. In some places, ice jams caused the river to rise as much as eight feet in an hour. At Harrisburg, PA, the river rose 15 feet in 14 hours, with much of that occurring in a three-hour surge. The peak river flow there was 20 times the normal for this time of the year. During the 1996 winter flood, severe ice jams on the Susquehanna River destroyed parts of the Safe Harbor and Holtwood hydroelectric facilities in Lancaster County, PA. The Conowingo Dam in Maryland recorded its second-highest flow ever, about 6.8 million gallons per second, large enough to fill 27 large, community swimming pools every second. The town of Port Deposit, Md., a community downstream from the dam, was one of many that sustained extensive damage from the flood waters. The January 1996 flood was the third worst in the river basin. In all, 14 lives were lost and damages were estimated at more than $600 million. All of Pennsylvania and certain counties in New York and Maryland were declared federal disaster areas. View SRBC's Special Flood Newsletter Issue
"The flooding occurred
during the night of January 19th. My husband walked home from work at
six o'clock, and saw the river was at about 8 feet and fast. At eight
o'clock, that evening, he walked down to look at the river. And it was
a little higher, not much, but much faster. Two hours later, at ten
o'clock, the river had gone up ten feet. So the river went from eight
feet to eighteen feet in two hours. And at that point, we knew we were
out of time." The system worked.
It saved lives and property
A production of the National Weather Service, Office of Hydrology, Silver Spring, MD
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