Weather Awareness: Coastal Flooding

different weather topics that impact the peninsula the goal is to inform the public and hopefully make everyone more weather aware today’s topic is coastal flooding… track 1 flooding is a concern all over the united states, especially for areas surrounded or nearly surrounded by water, for example, the delmarva peninsula. when people hear the term “flooding,” they typically associate it with rainy weather, but i found quite a few delmarva residents that knew you don’t need precipitation to cause a flood… are you aware of any flooding that can occur without any precipitation.. kriger: “yeah definitely here on the coast we have coastal flooding where you get storm surge or whatever and you can definitely get some flooding without precipitation.” daniel: can it flood without any precipitation? amanda: “yes” daniel: do you know what kind? amanda: “no” but you are right, good job! marsha: “it can flood without any precipitation, creeks can rise, rivers can rise, yes.” track 2 coastal flooding is a common type of flood that is a concern for the peninsula. it can occur during the day and at night, in good weather and in bad weather daniel green screen gfx the current wind speed and time of high tide play a big role in coastal flooding events. it can be a sunny day, but if winds are easterly or northeasterly and blowing straight at the coast it causes an extra push of water towards the coast. and during high tides, these waters can overflow their banks and impact property. track 3 if the national weather service believes coastal flooding will occur, they’ll issue a coastal flood advisory if conditions are minor and a coastal flood warning for more severe coastal flooding. for serious inland flooding, mainly due to heavy precipitation, a flood watch or flood warning will be issued. track 4 most coastal flooding is minor and mainly a nuisance to those who live near the water. while it may be a nuisance at times, it can of course become a major problem. from cambridge all the way to ocean city, coastal flooding can lead to erosion along the shore, something delmarva experienced a lot of this past winter. marlene: “in january i came across the next morning after the nor’easter to check out the beach to only find i had to climb over a 10 foot mound of sand to get down to the beach here at 28th. track 5 marlene is an ocean city resident and these are some of the scenes she came across this past winter in ocean city where some of the beach entrances were practically wiped out, but she’s seen a lot of the problems fixed already on the beach just in time for the opening season. marlene: “the town has done a great job getting everything back into place and smoothing the sand out.” track 6 a lot of this damage was caused by a nor’easter, a type of coastal storm that usually occurs during the winter. these storms get their name from their strong northeasterly winds; that wind can do a lot of damage to our coastline while bringing heavy snows just inland. track 7 not only does damage occur, but lives can be lost. flooding actually kills more people than any other form of thunderstorm-relat ed hazard. meteorologists often try to push the catch phrase “turn around, don’t drown,” but sometimes that advice goes on deaf ears and you may end up paying the ultimate price. lucky for this man, a local news reporter was able to jump in and save the man, but his car was lost. track 8 over half of all related flood deaths occur when a vehicle is driven into hazardous flood water. it only takes 6 inches of flowing water to knock over an adult and 12 inches to sweep a car away. the best thing to do is pay attention to local forecasts, have an emergency flood plan, and never underestimate the power of a flood. despite warnings, people still to this day drive into flooded roadways and that’s never a good idea so always, turn around don’t drown good idea so always, turn around don’t drown and as a reminder, the weather team posts the daily high tide charts and latest warnings each day on our website tune in next week as severe thunderstorms will be the next weather awareness topic… coming up we’ll have your tech