Are there more floods now than there used to be?
There are at least three different things happening that make it seem like there are more floods today: • Over the last 50 years, the population of the United States has doubled (U.S. census), so any flood tends to affect a lot more people now. That makes it feel like the floods are more severe. • The media seems to pile on the coverage whenever any flood happens anywhere, so you hear about floods more now than you used to. • Floods today are more severe because of changes that people have made to the landscape. The third factor is interesting. To understand how flooding can be more severe now, think about a 100-acre piece of land covered in trees. Let’s say that 3 inches of rain falls on that land in a heavy downpour. Forested land is extremely good at absorbing and holding water. The leaves on the ground slow the water down and let the ground absorb it. All of that ra
