Flood Fatalities in the United States

Abstract

This study compiles a nationwide database of flood fatalities for the contiguous United States from 1959 to 2005. Assembled data include the location of fatalities, age and gender of victims, activity and/or setting of fatalities, and the type of flood events responsible for each fatality report. Because of uncertainties in the number of flood deaths in Louisiana from Hurricane Katrina, these data are not included in the study. Analysis of these data reveals that a majority of fatalities are caused by flash floods. People between the ages of 10 and 29 and Ͼ60 yr of age are found to be more vulnerable to floods. Findings reveal that human behavior contributes to flood fatality occurrences. These results also suggest that future structural modifications of flood control designs (e.g., culverts and bridges) may not reduce the number of fatalities nationwide. Spatially, flood fatalities are distributed across the United States, with high-fatality regions observed along the northeast Interstate-95 corridor, the Ohio River valley, and near the Balcones Escarpment in south-central Texas. The unique distributions found are likely driven by both physical vulnerabilities for flooding as well as the social vulnerabilities.

Flood hazard assessment for extreme flood events

“…Taking into account all of these considerations, four types of flood events can be generally characterized as extreme flood events, including: (1) dam-break floods (Duffaut 2013;Bergman et al 2014;Raška and Emmer 2014), (2) storm surges (Chau et al 2013;Breilh et al 2014;Androulidakis et al 2015), (3) flash floods (Moussa and Bocquillon 2009;Martínez Ibarra 2012;Foulds et al 2014;Amengual et al 2015;Kvočka et al 2015), and (4) extreme/large river floods (Zhi-Yong et al 2013;Bruwier et al 2015;Herget et al 2015;Schröter et al 2015;Antico et al 2016). Among these types of extreme flood events, flash floods and large river floods are the most common and generally the most serious extreme events (Ashley and Ashley 2008;Di Baldassarre et al 2010), which pose the greatest flood risk to the general population.…”

Climate Impacts, Political Institutions, and Leader Survival: Effects of Droughts and Flooding Precipitation

“…We attempt to capture both scenarios by looking at extreme weather events that fall on either side of the fast/slow divide. Precipitation flooding often occurs without much forewarning and can destroy the livelihoods of affected populations within a single day (Ashley and Ashley 2008;Jonkman and Kelman 2005;Kirsch et al 2012;Komori et al 2012). Drought on the other hand results from rain (or snow) falls staying below long-term averages for months, years, or even decades (Kelley et al 2015;Mishra and Singh 2011).…”

Investing in Natural and Nature-Based Infrastructure: Building Better Along Our Coasts

“…In some cases, built infrastructure (e.g., dams, undersized culverts, seawalls, and water-diverting levees and canals) has resulted in significant declines in the abundance of aquatic organisms (e.g., economically valuable anadromous fish species) and the diversity of key habitats, such as the Florida Everglades [4][5][6][7][8][9]. Further, this infrastructure has resulted in flood-related human fatalities and property damage when it has failed [10,11].…”