It is the rainy season; more lives may be lost due to sporadic flooding or floods.
Flood is the over flow of large amount of water beyond its normal confines, especially over what is normally dry land, may occur from water bodies such as rivers, lakes, dams or even oceans in which the water overtops or breaks banks, resulting in some of that water escaping its usual boundaries. Flooding may also occur due to an accumulation of rainwater on saturated ground.
Whenever flooding takes place, there is possibility of loss of life, hardship to people, and extensive damage to property. Some floods occur abruptly and recede quickly whereas others take several days or even months to form and to recede because of various topographic factors.
Cause Factors of Flooding:
1) High rainfall intensity over a prolonged period.
When infrastructure drainage systems to remove rainwater appropriately into reservoirs are overwhelmed and the water doesn`t drain as quickly as it needs to. Water will back up and rise into dwellings and other structures.
2) Overflowing rivers.
Not necessarily to have heavy down pours to experience flooding more over those people leaving upstream next to the rivers. Rivers with dams not managed effectively can contribute to flooding in those leaving upstream.
3) Broken Dams.
Aging dam walls and water gates can fail to contain the rising water levels in the dam. Walls can unleash torrents of water to unsuspecting households.
4) Storm Surges and Tsunamis.
Storm surges related to hurricanes and other storm can lead to significant flooding, as can tsunamis that are caused by underwater earthquakes.
5) Large Paved areas.
In large urban areas where large areas are paved and roads are tarred, the surface become impermeable resulting with water being unable to sink into the ground, subsequently, flooding occurs even with small amount of rain which could have been handled easily by unpaved areas.
6) Clogged drainage systems.
Uncontrolled littering results with drain systems clogging and prevent rain water from draining quick enough through the system.
7) Developments in a natural water way.
Water naturally flow from a high-level area down to low laying areas. Poor developments in the low laying areas will result with water damming and flooding the area and into the structures.
Types of Floods:
1) Flash floods
2) River Floods
Flash floods: Generally, cause greater loss of life and they occur when runoffs from excessive rainfall cause a rapid rise in water heights of streams or normally dry channels.
For any Life-threatening emergency, call local emergency and disaster management call centre from the following numbers below:
EMERGENCY NUMBER:
10177 : National Toll Free Number
112 : Cell Phone(011) 458- 0911 : Life Threatening Ekurhuleni Emergency Line
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