Downpours and more intense hurricanes, exacerbated by climate change, are contributing factors to a growing number of communities finding themselves underwater. Floods are the most common (and among the most deadly) natural disasters in the United States.
2019 saw much of the country experience record-breaking rain with five Midwestern states recording the wettest year in 125 years according to NOAA. Flooding affected nearly 14 million people across the Midwest and Southwest, Houston was swamped by the second 500-year flood in two years, dumping over 40 inches of rain within 72 hours, and DC flash floods saw a month’s rain in only one hour.
Farmers and agriculture workers are hit particularly hard as crops have been destroyed, fields washed away, and spring planting disrupted for many farmers. Insufficient flood protection has left infrastructure destroyed with one farmer commenting, “I drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was…gone.” By Spring 2019, 25 states were at serious risk for flooding.
CREDIT: NOAA
