Floods kill people and destroy homes in many parts of the United States every year. Federal agencies estimate that an average of over 125 people die every year in the United States because of flooding, although losses vary widely from year to year.
Property damage ranges into the billions each year, and has been rising in recent decades.
Of course the live video of a family clinging to their car in a swollen river as rescuers winch down from a helicopter is so compelling that few viewers can change channels. But flooding is also worth covering because if people are informed, they can make decisions which will save lives and reduce property loss. As the deadliest and most damaging of U.S. weather hazards, floods have long been the focus of dreadful fascination by the public. Sometimes it is the scale that awes us as in the legendary Mississippi River flood of 1927. Sometimes it is the sudden lethality as in the 1889 Johnstown Flood that killed more than 2,209 people.