**Flood Awareness Week**

**Monday March 17, 2008**

**Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service (AHPS)**

The National Weather Service in Burlington VT has declared March 17
through 21, 2008, Flood Awareness Week. The National Weather Service
encourages residents of Vermont and Northern New York to be aware of the
dangers from flooding in the North Country, and take time during this
week to review flood threats and flood safety practices. A different
educational topic will be featured each day during the week. Today's
topic: Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service, AHPS for short.

AHPS is the NWS's ongoing effort to modernize NWS hydrologic services.
AHPS will provide improved river and flood forecasts and water
information across America to protect life and property and ensure the
nation's economic well being. AHPS graphical products are available at
the NWS homepage at [www.weather.gov](http://www.weather.gov/), then
click on the Rivers tab.

Everyone who makes decisions based on water, including farmers, dam
operators and electrical utilities, emergency managers, municipal water
supply officials, and recreational users such as boaters, kayakers, and
fishermen can benefit from AHPS.

Because every minute counts, AHPS will help emergency managers be more
proactive to fight a flood. AHPS provides information for community
leaders and business owners to make better life saving decisions about
evacuating people or moving property before a flood. Recreational users
will be able to stay out of harms way. AHPS also provides longer term
probabilistic forecasts of river levels for customers making risk based
decisions.

AHPS, with its suite of enhanced information, provides the public with
more detailed and accurate answers to the following questions:

\* How high will the rivers rise?

\* When will the river reach its peak?

\* Where will the flooding occur?

\* How long will the flood last?

\* How long will the drought last?

\* How certain is the forecast?

In Vermont and Northern New York, improvements to hydrologic services
include an enhanced website with rivers and lakes information, the
addition of probabilistic forecasts for many locations, and the modeling
and forecasting of levels of rivers in the Adirondacks of northern New
York. AHPS information for northern New York and Vermont can be found on
the NWS Burlington homepage at
[www.weather.gov/burlington](http://www.weather.gov/burlington), then
click on the "Rivers and Lakes AHPS" link.

Flood awareness week will continue tomorrow with the "Turn Around, Don't
Drown" awareness campaign.

**Flood Awareness Week**

**Tuesday March 18, 2008**

**Turn Around Don\'t Drown (TADD)**

The National Weather Service has declared March 17 through 21, 2008,
Flood Safety Awareness Week. The National Weather Service in Burlington
VT will feature a different educational topic each day during the week.
Today's topic: Turn Around, Don't Drown, or TADD for short.

TADD is a NOAA National Weather Service campaign to warn people of the
hazards of walking or driving a vehicle through flood waters.

Each year, more deaths occur due to flooding than from any other severe
weather related hazard. The main reason is people underestimate the
force and power of water. More than half of all flood related deaths
result from vehicles being swept downstream. Many are preventable.

All vehicles are at risk when entering flood waters, even pickups and
sports utility vehicles. The additional inch or two of ground clearance
and 500 to 1000 pounds extra weight of an SUV or pickup truck are no
match for flowing water. There are two factors involved, lateral forces
of the flowing water pushing against the vehicle, and buoyancy of the
vehicle in water.

Water flowing at 6 to 12 mph will push against a medium sized car or SUV
with 500 to 700 pounds of force for each foot the water rises. As the
speed of the water increases, the force exerted grows exponentially.
Rising water will also make your vehicle buoyant. A foot of water will
impart 1500 pounds of lift on an average sized vehicle. In effect your
car will weigh 1500 pounds less. The combination of buoyancy, and
lateral force of the water makes driving even an SUV into a flooded road
a risky, life threatening proposition.

The other consideration is the road itself. Even if you think the water
is very shallow, the road may no longer be there. Rapidly flowing water
can scour a roadbed away, and leave a weakened road surface or a large
hole that could easily swallow a vehicle.

Follow these safety rules:

-   Monitor the NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards, or your favorite news
    source for vital weather related information.

-   If flooding occurs, get to higher ground. Get out of areas subject
    to flooding. This includes dips, low spots, canyons, washes etc.

-   Obey local officials and road signs placed by road crews. They are
    there for your safety.

-   Avoid areas already flooded, especially if the water is flowing
    fast. Do not attempt to cross flowing streams. Turn Around Don\'t
    Drown

-   Road beds may be washed out under flood waters. NEVER drive through
    flooded roadways. Turn Around Don\'t Drown

-   Do not camp or park your vehicle along streams and washes,
    particularly during threatening conditions.

-   Be especially cautious at night when it is harder to recognize flood
    dangers.

-   After the flood, be aware that bridges, culverts, or the road
    surface may have sustained damage by flood waters. Obey all road
    closure signs even after the flood waters have receded.

**Flood Awareness Week**

**Wednesday March 19, 2008**

**Flood Hazards in the North Country**

The National Weather Service has declared March 17 through 21, 2008,
Flood Safety Awareness Week. The National Weather Service in Burlington
VT will feature a different educational topic each day during the week.
Today's topic: Flood Hazards in the North Country.

Northern New York and Vermont are at risk from flooding all year long.
During the winter, the flood threat is from ice jams and a sudden
snowmelt. The risk for snowmelt flooding grows into the spring as
temperatures warm and the snowpack melts. Summertime thunderstorms can
produce torrential downpours and cause flash flooding. In late summer
into the fall, the remnants of tropical storms can spread prolonged
heavy rain across the region.

Snowmelt Flooding,

When melting snow is a major source of the water involved in a flood, it
is considered a snowmelt flood. Unlike rainfall, which either runs off
or percolates into the soil immediately, snowfall accumulates all winter
long. When snowmelt finally occurs, it can be the equivalent of an
entire season's precipitation running off all at once. Most often,
spring melt of the snow pack is a relatively slow phenomenon. Snowmelt
rates are usually comparable to light to moderate rainfall. However, if
the snow melts quickly enough, and is accompanied by rainfall, flooding
can result.

Several factors typically contribute to snowmelt flooding in Winter and
Spring:

-   High soil moisture conditions prior to snowmelt, usually from a wet
    fall the previous year, can reduce the ground's ability to soak up
    melt water.

-   If the ground is frozen, runoff will be enhanced by the impervious
    frost.

-   An unseasonably heavy snow cover will store more water to be
    available for snowmelt.

-   Heavy rain contributes more water for flooding, and can also warm a
    cold snowpack, causing a faster melt. Rain-on-snow events are
    watched carefully for this reason.

-   Unusually warm periods with high humidity, and nightime temperatures
    above freezing can cause snowmelt rates to be much more rapid than
    normal.

-   Higher river flows from snowmelt can often spur the breakup of river
    ice, creating ice jams.

The NWS provides extensive information about snowpack conditions across
the country. A wide array of ground, airborne and satellite observations
are used to monitor snow conditions. The NWS in Burlington issues a
biweekly Winter/Spring Flood Potential Outlook which summarizes the risk
of spring flooding based on the depth and water content of the snowpack,
river flow and river ice conditions, and weather forecasts.

Ice Jams,

In Vermont and Northern New York, ice forms on rivers each winter. In
most years the ice will cover the entire river and can grow over a foot
thick. Ice jams occur when the solid cover of river ice is broken up by
higher river flows, rather than slowly melting away. The large blocks of
ice are carried downstream, until they are stopped by an obstruction in
the river channel such as a sand bar or island, bridge abutment, or
thicker ice cover on a deep pool or lake. The ice piles up to form an
ice dam, forcing water levels to quickly rise.

Ice jams are unpredictable, and the depth and speed of rising water
impounded by an ice jam can vary greatly. In some instances, communities
have many hours of lead time between the time an ice jam forms and the
start of flooding. In other cases, the lead time is much less. In March
1992, an ice jam developed at 7:00 a.m. in Montpelier VT, and by 8:00
a.m. the downtown area was flooded. During the next 11 hours, the
business district was covered with 4 to 5 feet water. Even after water
levels dropped, damage related to the flooding continued as cold
temperatures caused freeze up of wet objects.

Ice jams can result in scouring of the river bed and bank erosion that
may lead to bridge or river bank failure.  Ice jams can damage stream
channels and improvements so that overall vulnerability to flooding is
increased. Ice jams in the United States cause approximately \$125
million in damages annually, including an estimated \$50 million in
personal property damage and \$25 million in operation and maintenance
costs to navigation, flood control, and channel stabilization
structures.

Thunderstorms with Heavy Rain,

Summertime thunderstorms bring a variety of dangerous weather to the
region. Strong winds, hail, and deadly lightning are all potentially
hazardous. Thunderstorms can also produce torrential rainfall in a short
amount of time. Runoff from the heavy rain can quickly overwhelm
drainage areas, and cause small creeks and streams to become a raging
river. Runoff can damage roads, especially rural dirt roads, by washing
away the road surface and carving out deep gullies. In order to produce
the heavy rainfall, a thunderstorm may remain stationary over one
location for an hour or more. Other times, a succession of several
thunderstorms may track over the same location, a phenomenon known as
training.

Tropical Cyclones and Inland Flooding,

When it comes to tropical cyclones, a generic term for a hurricane,
typhoon, or tropical storm, wind speeds and severity categories 1-5 do
not tell the whole story. Intense rainfall, not directly related to the
wind speed of a tropical cyclone, often causes more damage. Since the
1970s, inland flooding has been responsible for more than half of the
deaths associated with tropical cyclones in the United States.
Typically, greater rainfall amounts and flooding are associated with
tropical cyclones that have a slow forward speed or stall over an area.
In Vermont, the two most significant floods in the state's history had
storms with tropical origins.

**Flood Awareness Week**

**Thursday March 20, 2008**

**Determining Flood Risk and Flood Insurance**

The National Weather Service has declared March 17 through 21, 2008,
Flood Safety Awareness Week. The National Weather Service in Burlington
VT will feature a different educational topic each day during the week.
Today's topic: Determining Flood Risk and Flood Insurance.

In 1968, Congress created the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) in
response to the rising cost of taxpayer funded disaster relief for flood
victims and the increasing amount of damage caused by floods. Flood
insurance is designed to provide an alternative to disaster assistance
to reduce the escalating costs of repairing damage to buildings and
their contents caused by floods. Only about one-quarter of the homes in
areas most vulnerable are insured against flood loss, according to the
Federal Insurance Administration (FIA). In those areas, flooding is 26
times more likely to occur than a fire during the course of a typical
30-year mortgage.

Nearly 20,000 communities across the United States and its territories
participate in the NFIP by adopting and enforcing floodplain management
ordinances to reduce future flood damage. In exchange, the NFIP makes
Federally backed flood insurance available to homeowners, renters, and
business owners in these communities. Community participation in the
NFIP is voluntary.

Flood damage is reduced by nearly \$1 billion a year through communities
implementing sound floodplain management requirements and property
owners purchasing of flood insurance. Additionally, buildings
constructed in compliance with NFIP building standards suffer
approximately 80 percent less damage annually than those not built in
compliance.

Flood losses aren\'t covered by your homeowners insurance policy. Local
flooding can happen in all parts of the country at almost any time of
the year. Flooding causes more damage in the United States than any
other severe weather related event, an average of \$4.6 billion a year
in the past 20 years (1984-2003).

National Flood Insurance can be purchased from private insurance
companies and agents. There are over 100 insurance companies that sell
National Flood Insurance coverage, in addition to some 60,000
independent insurance agents.

If the seller of the property has flood insurance coverage on the
building, that policy can be assigned to the buyer at the time of
closing. If the mortgage company requires flood insurance as a condition
of the loan, the lender may escrow flood insurance premiums - making it
easy to ensure that you will not get caught without flood insurance when
a flood threatens your home.

Anyone can purchase National Flood Insurance, if your community
participates in the National Flood Insurance Program. Under the National
Flood Insurance Act, lenders must require borrowers whose property is
located within a Special Flood Hazard Area to purchase flood insurance
as a condition of receiving a federally regulated mortgage loan. You can
get more information on the National Flood Insurance Program at
http://www.floodsmart.gov.

**Flood Awareness Week**

**Friday March 21, 2008**

**Flood Preparedness and Safety**

The National Weather Service has declared March 17 through 21, 2008,
Flood Safety Awareness Week. The National Weather Service in Burlington
VT will feature a different educational topic each day during the week.
Today's topic: Flood Preparedness and Safety.

To alert the public to potentially threatening flood conditions, the
National Weather Service issues Flood Watches and Warnings. Generally, a
Flood Watch is issued when flooding is possible within the next 36
hours. A Flood or Flash Flood Warning indicates that flooding is
imminent or already occurring.

There are several different types of flood warnings issued by the
National Weather Service:

**Flood Warnings for Major Rivers --** These warnings are issued
specifically for major rivers, and included forecasts of water levels at
specific points along the river. Some floods occur seasonally when
winter or spring rains coupled with melting snows cause rivers to
overflow their banks. Prolonged heavy rains from decaying hurricanes or
tropical systems can also produce river flooding.

Once a river reaches flood stage, the flood severity categories used by
the NWS include minor flooding, moderate flooding, and major flooding.
Each category has a definition based on property damage and public
threat.

-   **Minor Flooding** - minimal or no property damage, but possibly
    some public threat or inconvenience

-   **Moderate Flooding** - some inundation of structures and roads near
    streams. Some evacuations of people and/or transfer of property to
    higher elevations are necessary.

-   **Major Flooding** - extensive inundation of structures and roads.
    Significant evacuations of people and/or transfer of property to
    higher elevations.

For each NWS river forecast location, flood stage and the stage
associated with each of the NWS flood severity categories are
established in cooperation with local public officials. 

**Flood Warnings for Small Rivers and Streams --** These warnings are
issued on a county by county basis for the smaller rivers and streams.
These smaller rivers and streams may or may not have river gage
information available.

**Flash Flood Warnings --** These warnings are issued for a county when
rapid, life threatening rises in water levels are expected on rivers,
small streams, or in urban areas. When a Flash Flood Warning is issued
or flash flooding is observed, time is of the essence. Immediate action
must be taken to protect life and property.

Flash floods occur over a very short period of time, often within a few
hours of a rain event. Several factors contribute to Flash Flooding. The
two key elements are rainfall intensity and duration. Intensity is the
rate of rainfall, and duration is how long the rain lasts. Topography,
soil conditions, and ground cover also play an important role. A dam or
levee failure, or sudden release of water held by an ice or debris jam
can also lead to flash floods. Many times there is little opportunity
for advance warning.

**Urban and Small Stream Flood Advisories --** These statements are
issued when minor nuisance flooding, such as ponding of water on roads,
is expected for urban areas or small rural streams. This type of minor
flooding happens when the normal drainage is unable to handle the volume
of runoff from heavy rain or snow melt. Ice or snow may contribute to
the flooding by blocking drainage ditches and culverts.

The risk from flooding can be reduced by following one basic rule: Stay
away from flood waters! Before and during the flood, awareness and
preparation are key. Know your flood risk and elevation above flood
stage. Do your local streams or rivers flood easily? If so, be prepared
to move to a place of safety. Know your evacuation routes.

Assemble a disaster supplies kit containing a first aid kit, canned food
and can opener, bottled water, rubber boots and gloves, a, NOAA Weather
Radio and battery powered radio, flashlight and extra batteries.

Stay away from areas subject to flooding. This includes dips, low spots,
creek beds, canyons and ravines. Avoid already flooded areas, and
streams and rivers with high velocity flows. Do not attempt to cross
flowing streams.

If driving, be aware that the road bed may not be intact under flood
waters. Turn around and go another way if you encounter a flooded
roadway. If the vehicle stalls, leave it immediately and seek higher
ground. Rapidly rising water may engulf the vehicle and sweep it away.
Be especially cautious at night when flood waters are more difficult to
see.

Children should never play around high water, fast running streams,
storm drains or culverts. Rocks and streambanks can be slippery, and the
rapidly flowing floodwaters can quickly carry a child or adult away.

Know the river conditions before swimming or wading in a river. When
river flows are high, a normally calm and quiet swimming hole can become
life threatening. This can be true even if the river is not in flood. If
there have been recent heavy rains, remember that stream and river flows
can remain elevated for days or even weeks afterwards. In Vermont and
Northern New York over the past several years, deaths have resulted when
swimmers were overcome by rapidly flowing rivers.

NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards is one of the best ways to receive
warnings from the National Weather Service. NOAA Weather Radio All
Hazards is a nationwide network of radio stations broadcasting
continuous weather and river information direct from nearby NWS offices.
Also, the NWS web page at www.weather.gov provides forecasts and warning
and identifies where flooding is occurring. And local radio, television,
and print media are crucial in the process of notifying and warning the
public of flood threats.

On the internet, visit the following sites for more information:
[www.redcross.org](http://www.redcross.org/), for flood safety
informaton. The Federal Alliance for Safe Homes
([www.flash.org](http://www.flash.org/)) has information on flood
proofing your home.

The NWS works with and relies on strategic partners involved in
floodplain management, flood hazard mitigation, flood preparedness, and
flood warnings to reduce the loss of life and property due to floods. 
Key partners include the [U.S. Geological
Survey](http://www.nws.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/nwsexit.pl?url=http://water.usgs.gov),
[FEMA](http://www.nws.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/nwsexit.pl?url=http://www.fema.gov/),
the [National Hydrologic Warning
Council](http://www.nws.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/nwsexit.pl?url=http://www.udfcd.org/Nhwc/nhwc.htm),
the [Association of State Floodplain
Managers](http://www.nws.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/nwsexit.pl?url=http://www.floods.org/home/default.asp),
the [American Red
Cross](http://www.nws.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/nwsexit.pl?url=http://www.redcross.org/),
the [National Safety
Council](http://www.nws.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/nwsexit.pl?url=http://www.nsc.org/),
the [Federal Alliance for Safe
Homes](http://www.nws.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/nwsexit.pl?url=http://www.flash.org/),
[The Weather
Channel](http://www.nws.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/nwsexit.pl?url=http://www.weather.com/),
and other media outlets, and many other government and private sector
organizations.