FLOOD

an overflowing of a large amount of water beyond its normal confines, especially over what is normally dry land.

What is a flood?

A flood is a natural event that can have far reaching effects on people and the environment. Put simply, a flood is too
much water in the ‘wrong’ place!

What causes floods?

A flood is caused by a combination of heavy rainfall causing river / oceans to over flow their banks, and can happen at
any time of the year, not just in the winter. Floods generally develop over a period of days, when there is too much
rainwater to fit in the rivers and water spreads over the land next to it (the ‘floodplain’). However, they can happen very
quickly when lots of heavy rain falls over a short period of time. These ‘flash floods’ occur with little or no warning and
cause the biggest loss of human life than any other type of flooding. Coastal areas are also at risk from sea flooding,
when storms and big waves bring seawater onto the land. The worst cases of flooding may occur if there is a
combination of storms, ‘spring tides’ and low atmospheric pressure.

What are the effects of flooding?

Flooding can be very dangerous – only 15cms of fast-flowing water are needed to knock you off your feet! Floodwater
can seriously disrupt public and personal transport by cutting off roads and railway lines, as well as communication links
when telephone lines are damaged.

Floods disrupt normal drainage systems in cities, and sewage spills are common, which represents a serious health
hazard, along with standing water and wet materials in the home. Bacteria, mould and viruses, cause disease, trigger
allergic reactions, and continue to damage materials long after a flood.

Floods can distribute large amounts of water and suspended sediment over vast areas, restocking valuable soil nutrients
to agricultural lands. In contrast, soil can be eroded by large amounts of fast flowing water, ruining crops, destroying
agricultural land / buildings and drowning farm animals.

Severe floods not only ruin homes / businesses and destroy personal property, but the water left behind causes further
damage to property and contents. The environment and wildlife is also at risk when damage when damage to businesses
causes the accidental release of toxic materials like paints, pesticides, gasoline etc.

Floodwater can severely disrupt public and personal transport by cutting off roads and railway lines, as well as
communication links when telephone lines are damaged.

Unfortunately, flooding not only disrupts many people’s lives each year, but it frequently creates personal tragedies
when people are swept away and drowned.

What’s being done to prevent flooding?

The Environment Agency aims to protect people and their property from flooding, helping organizations like the police
to give warnings of possible floods so that people can make arrangements or move out of the area if it is dangerous. We
do this by issuing one of the following flood codes:

Flooding Possible . Be aware! Be Prepared! Watch out!

Flooding expected. Affecting homes, businesses and main roads.

Act now!

Severe Flooding Expected. Imminent danger to life and property.

Act now!

Flood water levels receding. Check all is safe to return. Seek Advice .what can you do?

• Understand what the flood codes mean and that both you and your family knows what to do when a warning occurs.
• Listen to local advice and information and keep a look out for the flood warning codes.

• Keep a list of useful numbers to hand e.g.: local council, emergency services, insurance company.

• Be prepared! Pack a rucksack with important items just in case you need to move out. Don’t forget to include
sentimental personal belongings (such as a favourite toy and/or photos) as well as medication that you may take
regularly.

• Make sure that you know where your pets are, and that they will be safe if a flood occurs.

Lahars and Their Effects

Gualí River valley. Photograph by R. Janda on December 18, 1985

Lahar is an Indonesian term that describes a hot or cold mixture of water and rock fragments flowing down the slopes of a
volcano and (or) river valleys. When moving, a lahar looks like a mass of wet concrete that carries rock debris ranging in
size from clay to boulders more than 10 m in diameter. Lahars vary in size and speed. Small lahars less than a few
meters wide and several centimeters deep may flow a few meters per second. Large lahars hundreds of meters wide and
tens of meters deep can flow several tens of meters per second--much too fast for people to outrun.
As a lahar rushes downstream from a volcano, its size, speed, and the amount of water and rock debris it carries
constantly change. The beginning surge of water and rock debris often erodes rocks and vegetation from the side of a
volcano and along the river valley it enters. This initial flow can also incorporate water from melting snow and ice (if
present) and the river it overruns. By eroding rock debris and incorporating additional water, lahars can easily grow to
more than 10 times their initial size. But as a lahar moves farther away from a volcano, it will eventually begin to lose its
heavy load of sediment and decrease in size.
Eruptions may trigger one or more lahars directly by quickly melting snow and ice on a volcano or ejecting water
from a crater lake. More often, lahars are formed by intense rainfall during or after an eruption--rainwater can easily erode
loose volcanic rock and soil on hillsides and in river valleys. Some of the largest lahars begin as landslides of saturated and
hydrothermally altered rock on the flank of a volcano or adjacent hillslopes. Landslides are triggered by eruptions, earthquakes,
precipitation, or the unceasing pull of gravity on the volcano.
Lahars almost always occur on or near stratovolcanoes because these volcanoes tend to erupt explosively and their
tall, steep cones are either snow covered, topped with a crater lake, constructed of weakly consolidated rock debris that is
easily eroded, or internally weakened by hot hydrothermal fluids. Lahars are also common from the snow- and ice-
covered shield volcanoes in Iceland where eruptions of fluid basalt lava frequently occur beneath huge glaciers.
The scenarios listed below illustrate most of the mechanisms by which lahars are generated. For convenience, we've
grouped the mechanisms according to whether a volcano is erupting, has erupted, or is quiet. Each mechanism is
illustrated with one or more case studies.
Lahars and Their Effects

Lahar Scenarios
Lahars After Eruptions
 Heavy rainfall can lead to erosion and lahars
 Sudden release of water caused by lake breakouts

Lahars Without Eruptions

 Sudden landslides at volcanoes can trigger lahars

 Huila Volcano, Colombia, 1994 - Earthquake and Landslide induced
 Casita Volcano, Nicaragua, 1999
 What's that cloud upriver? An eyewitness account of a lahar triggered by rainfall in Guatemala.
 Ontake volcano, Japan, 1984
Lahars racing down river valleys and spreading across flood plains tens of kilometers downstream from a volcano
often cause serious economic and environmental damage. The direct impact of a lahar's turbulent flow front or from the
boulders and logs carried by the lahar can easily crush, abrade, or shear off at ground level just about anything in the path
of a lahar. Even if not crushed or carried away by the force of a lahar, buildings and valuable land may become partially
or completely buried by one or more cement-like layers of rock debris. By destroying bridges and key roads, lahars can
also trap people in areas vulnerable to other hazardous volcanic activity, especially if the lahars leave deposits that are too
deep, too soft, or too hot to cross.
After a volcanic eruption, the erosion of new loose volcanic deposits in the headwaters of rivers can lead to severe
flooding and extremely high rates of sedimentation in areas far downstream from a volcano. Over a period of weeks to
years, post-eruption lahars and high-sediment discharges triggered by intense rainfall frequently deposit rock debris that
can bury entire towns and valuable agricultural land. Such lahar deposits may also block tributary stream valleys. As the
area behind the blockage fills with water, areas upstream become inundated. If the lake is large enough and it eventually
overtops or breaks through the lahar blockage, a sudden flood or a lahar may bury even more communities and valuable
property downstream from the tributary.

Lahars can destroy by direct impact

Photograph by T. Pierson in November 1985. This cement foundation is all that remains of a building that was
crushed and carried away by the direct impact of a lahar as it swept through Armero, Colombia. The building was near the
main channel of the Lagunillas River and took the full force of the lahar that swept 74 km from Nevado del Ruiz volcano
on November 13, 1985.

Lahars can lead to increased deposition of sediment

 Photograph by T. Pierson on August 23, 1991 In the years since the 15 June 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the
Philippines, sediment carried by rain-induced lahars have displaced more than 50,000 people from their homes and
covered at least 400 km2 of rich agricultural land. This view of the Abacan River shows sediment deposited on farmland
and a nearby community within 2 months of Pinatubo's explosive eruption. Nearly all the post-eruption lahars have been
caused by intense rainfall, especially during typhoons and monsoon season, which easily erodes the loose pyroclastic-flow
deposits that fill the headwaters of all rivers draining the volcano.

Lahars can block tributary streams

Photograph by C. Newhall on August 30, 1994 This lake formed in 1994 behind a blockage created chiefly by lahar
deposits in the Pasig-Portrero River about 12 km from Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, though some secondary
pyroclastic flows may have contributed (the river flows right to left). After a moderate rainfall, the lake broke out on the
night of 22 September 1994. A sudden surge of water swept downstream, increasing in size as the rushing water eroded
sediment from previous lahar deposits. Approximately 25 people were killed by the lake breakout, mostly in a community
located about 15 km downstream.

Lahars can bury valleys and communities with debris

Photograph by T. Pierson on February 3, 1995 Hundreds of lahars sweeping down from nearby Unzen Volcano in
Japan buried, crushed, or carried away more than a thousand homes like this one along the Mizunashi River. Between
August 1992 and July 1993, lahars triggered by heavy rains damaged about 1,300 houses. Each period of heavy rain
required the sudden evacuation of several thousand residents along two rivers heading on the volcano. The deposits from
these lahars consisted chiefly of lava fragments derived from partial collapses of the summit lava dome located 5 to 8 km
upstream.