FDSCI 201 FLOODING Assignment (40 Points)



Lesson 8 Guided Lab—Floods

Goals: - Determine the percent of declared disasters that are floods.

- Use web resources to determine whether there is a current danger of flooding or extreme precipitation in a region of the U.S.

- Determine flood danger and recurrence interval

Part I. Flood Disaster Frequency

1) What percent of all Federal Emergencies do you think are floods (just make a guess)?

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Figure 1. Map of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Administration) Regions

2) The map above shows how FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Administration) divides the United States into disaster regions. FEMA compiles data for each FEMA region to and makes it available at . Because the web interface for this data is constantly changing, you should use the PDF summary entitled “FEMA Disaster Declarations 2000 2011 that is provided for you in I-Learn Record your data in the table below.

Number of Declared Federal Disaster Events for FEMA Disaster Management Regions

| |Number of Declared Federal Disaster Events |The number of FLOOD disaster Events |Percent of the disasters that were |

|Region |of ANY Type | |floods. |

|I | | | |

|II | | | |

|III | | | |

|IV | | | |

|V | | | |

|VI | | | |

|VII | | | |

|VIII | | | |

|IX | | | |

|X | | | |

|TOTAL | | | |

3) How do the actual percentages of flood disasters compare with your guess?

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Part II. Flood Insurance

Most homeowners insurance policies do not cover flood insurance. Instead, the Federal Emergency

Management Agency (FEMA) administers flood insurance through a federal program – the insurance is bought separate from the regular policy. 

Go to . Under the area of the screen titled “What Would Flooding Cost Me?” click on the button titled “Learn More.”

4) How much would it cost a 1000 sq. ft. homeowner if flood waters 1 inch deep entered a home?

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5) How much would it cost a 1000 sq. ft. homeowner if flood waters 2 feet deep entered a home?

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Determine the flood risk of your home(s). Type in your address, city, state, and zip code in the area on the right side of the screen called “How Can I Get Covered?”

6) In what city and state is the address you are using?

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7) What is your homes’ risk?

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Part III. Where are flood disasters occurring?

NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has a website that gives quick access to information about current flooding in the continental United States. To access this information go to this website the NOAA Advanced Hydrographic Prediction System at . If this link doesn’t work, search the internet for “NOAA AHPS water.”

At the NOAA AHPS River Condition page there is a map that looks like this:

Each colored square on the map represents a river gauging station. A gauging station measures and records river discharge and stage.

8) Define river discharge.

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9) Define river stage.

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On the NOAA Watch webpage use the key beside the map on this new page to answer these questions:

10) What is today’s date?

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11) How many gauges indicate major flooding?

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12) How many gauges indicate minor flooding?

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Part IV. Case Study – Fargo, North Dakota

You have been offered a job in Fargo -- the largest city in North Dakota (population ~90,000)! You are pretty excited, because you know that North Dakota is far from any tectonic plate boundaries -- no worries about earthquakes and volcanoes! You check the National Landslide Map and see the landslide probability is low too! This is too good to be true. However, after taking Natural Disasters you know that you should check out other possible disasters, so you do a quick search for natural disasters in Fargo. Here are a few of the news headlines you find from March 2010:

Fargo Spends $7.4 million in Flood Plain Home Buyout

Football Field 12 Feet Under – Water Polo Anyone?

Red River to Crest at 38 Feet Tomorrow

1 Millionth Sand Bag Filled

10,000 Volunteers Sandbag Downtown Fargo

Red River Area Prepares for Flood

Hmmm -- it looks like flooding might be a problem in Fargo. Just how big is the flooding problem? That is something that you will investigate. Here you will collect data and view graphs from a gauging station on the Red River in Fargo. To access the data you again will use the NOAA Internet site: .

On the map, zoom in to North Dakota (north-central U.S. bordering Canada), and pass your mouse along the border between North Dakota and Minnesota until you find the dot labeled, “Red River of the North at Fargo.” With your mouse hovering on this dot, a window pops up with flood stage information.

In the new window that opens, find the city of Fargo, ND (it is near the center of the map). Click the symbol next to Fargo. A new window will open with a graph in it. You may want to copy the graph into a word file. (Right click on the graph to copy it.)

The y-axis of the graph on the left side of the screen represents the stage of the river. The y-axis on the right is the flow rate.

13) What unit is the river stage given in?

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14) What is flood stage for the Red River at this gauging station?

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15) The x-axis represents days of the week. What is today’s date?

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16) What is the stage of the Red River in Fargo, ND today?

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17) Is the river above flood stage?

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18) Is the stage of the river rising, falling, or remaining steady over the time shown on the graph?

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19) Scroll down the screen. Below the maps you will see “Flood Impacts.” What impacts are there when the Red River reaches a stage of 28 feet?

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20) The crest of a flood is the highest stage that the water reached during a flood. How many feet above flood stage is the highest historical crest on the Red River at Fargo? [pic]

21) When did this highest crest occur? [pic]

The uncle of one of your friends says that he heard that the level of flooding in 2010 in Fargo is rare. It usually just floods a little. You will evaluate the graph below which contains data from a USGS gauging station on the Red River at Fargo to determine if he is right.

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Figure 2. Maximum stage of the Red River at Fargo, ND from 1882 to 2010 (data from , gauging station number 05054000.)

Draw a horizontal line on the graph that shows the flood stage of the Red River. Then use the graph to answer the questions.

22) How many times has the Red River exceeded flood stage between 1882 and 2010?

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23) How many times has the Red River exceeded major flood stage between 1882 and 2010? [pic]

Read about 100-year floods at: .

24) Define Flood Recurrence Interval

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25) Your employer says that the flood in 2010 was a 100-year flood and the flood in 2009 was a 200-year flood so it will be at least 300 years before we see another flood like them. Is your employer correct?

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26) Why is it possible for two 100-year floods to occur less than 2 years apart?

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27) What is the probability that a 100 year flood will occur along the Mississippi River this year?

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28) What is the probability that a 10 year flood will occur along the Mississippi River this year?

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29) What can you tell your friend’s uncle about the frequency of floods in Fargo, ND?

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30) Discuss your acceptable risk for flooding with a friend. Would either of you live in a 100 year flood zone? A 500 year flood zone? Explain your opinions.

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