Flooding can cause great damage to the buildings and the countryside. Too much rain brings floods. There are two different types of floods. Flash floods happen after a short burst of heavy rainfall, usually caused by thunderstorms. Broadscale flooding happens when rain falls steadily over a wide area—for weeks or months—without stopping. When this happens, rivers slowly fill and eventually burst their banks. Tropical storms, such as hurricanes, can also lead to broadscale flooding.
Flash Floods
There can be floods in the desert. When a lot of rain falls very quickly on to land that has been baked dry, it cannot soak in. Instead sits on the surface, causing flash floods.
A desert flash flood can create streams of muddy brown water. After the water level falls, vegetation burst into life.
There really was a Great Flood. The Bible tells of a terrible flood, and how a man called Noah was saved. Recently, explorers found the first real evidence of the Flood—a sunken beach 140 metres below the surface of the Black Sea. There are ruins of houses, dating back to 5600B.C. Stories of a huge flood in ancient times do not appear only in the Bible—the Babylonians and Greeks told of one, too.
Mud Floods
Mud can flood. When rain mixes with earth it makes mud. On bare mountainside, there are no tree roots to hold the soil together. An avalanche of mud can slide off the mountain. The worst-even mudslide happened after flooding in Colombia, South America in 1985. It buried 23,000 people from the town of Armero.
Mudslide can devastate whole towns and villages, as the flow of mud covers everything it meets.
You don't believe it! The ancient Egyptians had a story to explain the yearly flooding of the Nile. They said the goddess Isis filled the river with tears, as she cried for her lost husband.
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