Flooding in the Last Five Years: 2010

About a week ago I put up the first post in a series of five about flooding. That one was titled Flooding in the Last Five Years: 2009 and recapped the major flooding events that year. I also gave the total cost of damages and lives lost do to flooding. There were about 8 major events, with 51 deaths and just over a billion in damages that year.

Now, let's take a look at what the year 2010 brought us, in terms of flooding. I am pulling information from a yearly report provided by The National Weather Service/NOAA. There you can find more information about the year and each of the events.

2010

• March: Flooding in much of the Northeast due to an early thaw. First, in parts of New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts the snow melted right before a large rain storm. This over saturation caused flooding. Then a couple weeks later the snow in New Hampshire and Vermont melted, this added more water to already swollen rivers in Massachusetts. This month saw some serious flooding, especially in New Jersey's Passaic River Basin.
  
  The damages for the month totaled $330 million over the four states. Amazingly, there were no flood-related deaths.

• May: Heavy rainfall causes flooding in Tennessee and Kentucky. Rainfall records were broken, and many rivers also rose to record heights. This flooding cost $2.3 BILLION and 26 lives were lost.

A tanker truck is pushed against trees after being washed away, 

Sunday, May 2, 2010 in Nashville, Tenn.

 (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

Businesses in downtown Nashville, Tenn.,

are surrounded by floodwater Monday, May 3, 2010.

(AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

• June: Flash flooding due to storms in Texas and Arkansas. This flooding caused towns to be evacuated in Texas. In Arkansas, campers by the Little Missouri River were wakened by flash flooding. This was another deadly event with 20 deaths and 26 people injured. This storm cost $9 million in damages.
  
  
  A second flooding event occurred in June, when a storm dumped heavy rains on Oklahoma City. The timing of the storm during and right before rush hour caused many vehicles to become stuck in the waters. There were 130 injuries, one death and and about $6 million in damages.

Tossed By Flash Flood 

Photograph by Mike Stone, Reuters

Search for Flood Survivors

Photograph by Sue Ogrocki, AP

• July: The first of four flood events this month was in Alaska. Flooding from a storm caused washouts and mudslides. In Alaska, flash floods are rare, but they did occur with this storm. One person lost his or her life. The report did not list the amount of damages associated with this particular event.
  
  The second episode of flooding occurred in Iowa. Technically, the event started in June with many heavy rain storms. So, in late July, the ground couldn't hold any more water and the next round of storms caused flooding. This severely damaged the corn and soybean crop. There were no deaths or serious injuries reported, but there was about $50 million in property damages and an estimated $1 billion in agricultural damage.

Then, in Wisconsin, again the rains in June set up the scenario where the rains in July couldn't be absorbed, leading to flooding there as well. There was one death reported and about $27.7 million in damages.

The fourth notable flood event in July occurred in Texas along the Rio Grande. It started with the remnants of Hurricane Alex, and then Tropical Depression #2 pushed the river over the edge. The flooding lasted for about the entire month of July! The President declared many counties in the Rio Grande Valley as areas of Major Disaster. There were three deaths and over $110 million in damages.

KXAN - Jim Spencer/blog

• September: Flooding in Texas and Oklahoma occurred due to Tropical Storm Hermine. There was $29 million in damages and six deaths.

• September/October: Remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole met up with a low front, which led to intense rainfall and flooding along the Eastern Seaboard. It affected North Carolina's mainland and Outer Banks, the Catskills of New York, and parts of Pennsylvania. This storm also caused damage to crops, so the totals were $20 million in property damages, $70 million in agricultural damages and seven fatalities.

Well, looks like another bad year for flooding! Unlike 2009, we saw some serious flooding due to tropical storms.

So let's review the totals! Using the same chart as in the last post, provided in the report by the NWS, there were a total of 112 flood-related deaths and $5,041,227 in damages.

The amount in damages in 2010 was over 5 times the amount in 2009! And, over double the amount of fatalities!

Yikes!

Next in this series of posts we will examine 2011 in this same format. I know 2011 saw Hurricane Irene...

Then there was Hurricane Sandy in 2012, but Water Year 2012  runs October 1st 2011-September 30th
2012, so Hurricane Sandy will actually be included in the 2013 Water Year evaluation.

Looking ahead makes me think that these numbers are going to get worse, before they get better.

So, stay tuned for the third post in this five-part series about Flooding the the Last Five Years.