WEBVTT - How Floods Work 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:16.479 from house Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:20.160 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W Chuck Bryant, 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:23.040 and that makes this Stuff you should Know the podcast 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:30.560 The Saturated Podcast. This week Super Saturated, Bloody Podcast. I 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:32.319 don't know why this came to mind. I didn't see 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:34.920 any flood that happened on the news. It just I 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:37.440 think I happened across it searching randomly in a thought. 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:39.800 It's a good one. Look cover with that one. Yet 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:43.760 flooded stuff always creeps me out. Oh yeah, yeah. I 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:46.680 think it goes back to my days in Toledo as 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:50.120 a young boy. Um many times growing up in my 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:55.080 house on Beverly Drive, there were there the mommy would 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:59.240 flood and um my basement would flood as a result, 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:01.400 and times it would come all the way up to 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:04.360 like the top step. Really yeah, I just think about 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:07.000 like all my dad's tools down there like underwater, and 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:10.280 it weren't supposed to be. It was just really creepy 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:13.040 because you just opened the door and step on the 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:15.720 landing and then there's just water. You can kind of 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:18.399 see like the top couple of steps that was, you know, 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:21.960 suggested all the other stuff that was down there. So 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:25.760 I think since then, I've always been fascinated and creeped 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:27.840 out by the idea of things that are supposed to 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:32.000 be above ground submerged like ships. When we talked about 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:35.720 the Bermuda Triangle, like down there in the trench never 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:38.880 to be found, Like, yeah, that's creepy. Yeah, the same 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:41.560 thing with floods. Man, it didn't It doesn't creep me 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:46.680 out like that, but I get it, okay, so um chuck, Yes, 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:50.400 I take it you're familiar with flooding. Do you remember 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:53.240 the one in ninety four done in Albany, the Great Flood, 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:56.800 the Flint River flood. Oh man, it was all over 0:01:56.840 --> 0:01:59.720 the news like they were like, um, in Albany, Georgia, 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:03.360 don't remember. There were caskets, like four hundred caskets were 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:07.200 loosed and we're just kind of floating around. They were. 0:02:07.360 --> 0:02:10.320 They had this weird tendency to congregate towards trees or 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:14.720 around trees, and um they some people started lashing into 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:16.679 that because they had to have a court order to 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:21.680 even grab the caskets, but apparently it was the second 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:27.280 worst cemetery disaster in the United States. Couldn't find I 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:29.800 was in Athens at the time. I was. I was 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:33.160 not up on it was a big it was a big, 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:35.520 big thing. I'm surprised, but it was really creepy. You 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:40.960 can see pictures of like caskets just kind of floating around. Um. Yeah, 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:43.560 they recently found a human school that they think was 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:48.400 part of the remains that was moved by the flood. Yeah, 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:51.040 it's amazing how out of the news loop I was 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:54.280 while I was in college. Yeah, because it was pre Internet. Yeah, 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:56.440 I didn't get the paper. I was in college. Who 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:58.560 gets the paper and reads it? I knew people who 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:03.160 sold the paper. I didn't have TV, so yeah, I 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:07.760 knew about class and working at Maskalie Grill and sleeping 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:09.600 late and all of the kinds of things that I 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:12.680 can't talk about. That's awesome. I remember the Gulf War 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:16.600 that happened, well because of the Internet, that um came 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:21.280 after your college years, like two decades after your college years. Um. 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:25.160 You can see video of the news footage. You're fine 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:28.120 stepping back in time. I will do. Well. Let's talk 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:32.480 about flooding chuck um. First, I guess to understand floods, 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:37.240 we need to give a brief primer of the hydrological cycle. Yes, 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:42.240 we do, if you ask me. Uh, there's been about 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:44.840 the same amount of water on Earth for a long 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:46.880 long time. Yeah, I thought this was fascinating. Yeah, but 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:48.960 it hasn't always been in the same place as we know, 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:53.960 and it's not it's not the same water necessarily. There's 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:56.720 a constant loss and gain of water. Yeah, every day 0:03:56.840 --> 0:04:00.760 you lose water, obviously to the atmosphere where like um, uh, 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:04.760 the solar rays and other cosmic radiation just blasts water 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:08.840 vapors into like nothing, You're gone, You're by longer water. Sorry, 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:12.640 as that is going on. Volcanic activity in the core 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:14.800 or not the core necessarily, but in the inner Earth 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:18.480 is releasing water and it about balances out on a 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:20.479 day to day basis. But did you know that volcanoes 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:23.839 released water? Sure after I read this. Yeah, we even 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:26.320 did a Hot Volcanoes Work podcast and I don't remember 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:30.760 talking about it releasing water. But when water is generator 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:35.200 introduced into the upper Earth in the atmosphere, it comes 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:40.240 from volcanoes of volcanic gas is water vapor, so it 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:42.440 about it balances out on a day to day basis, 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:45.239 which is pretty remarkable. Yea, almost as if it's happening 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:47.800 that way for a reason. And are you familiar with 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:51.880 the anthropic principles that we'll talk about it sometimes, right, Oh, 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:54.800 it's not directly relating to this, No, it's about the 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:59.160 concept of why everything is so falling and has fallen 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:02.839 so perfectly into place that we are able to notice 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:04.720 this and say, wait a minute, it almost seems like 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:08.120 we're supposed to be here, right, And the anthropic principle 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:11.960 is like, yeah, and there's like five million other worlds 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:15.280 out there that didn't happen like that, so we aren't 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:19.320 there to say, wow, it's almost like everything fell into place, 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:22.400 so we're supposed to be here. Interesting, we'll see. You 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:26.560 just told me about it right now. Trick to you. Uh. 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:29.559 Water can be all around the earth in three different forms, 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:34.200 as everyone knows. You have liquids, rivers, oceans, lakes, uh, 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:39.160 rain solids we've talked about and this this kind of 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:41.920 collects a lot of our podcast in a way, like 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:45.640 the clouds and the and now we're talking about the Antarctica. 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:50.479 Lots of frozen water at the falls the Antarctica, or 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:54.120 it can be gas which is water vapor in the air. Yes, 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:57.400 and it's all moved around by the wind thanks to 0:05:57.440 --> 0:05:59.560 the sun. And remember, I can't remember which podcast we 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:01.679 talked abo and whether it was the sun or clouds 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:06.360 or something, but wind is created by um. The exchange 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:09.719 of air is warm air is heated at the surface 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:12.840 and rises cooler air rushes in to fill that vacuum. 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:16.680 There's your windpal Yeah. And then well, once that warm 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:19.440 ay rises, though, it's also going to get colder and 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:23.120 form little droplets of water which form together to form clouds, 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:26.720 which we went over in fluffy little clouds, right, Yeah, 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:31.200 because the the sun um heats the ocean surface, that evaporates, 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:33.840 like you said, it rises, forms clouds, and then eventually 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:39.440 those clouds become pregnant with rain and rain falls down. Right. 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:43.320 As the rain falls down, it fills waterways, rivers, streams, 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:48.400 that kind of thing underground um. But for the most part, 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:50.840 some of it does go to phil aquifers and that's storage, 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:54.440 but the vast majority of it makes its way back 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:58.320 to the oceans where the process begins again and everything 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:01.680 is complete in the circle of life. That's right. The 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:06.359 cool thing here is wind is pretty consistent across the globe. 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:10.320 Wherever you live, your weather is pretty consistent. You might 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:12.119 think if you live in Atlanta, like, oh, that's crazy 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:15.200 in December here at sixty degrees. But by and large, 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:17.720 if you look at the big picture, your weather systems 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:20.280 are pretty consistent on a day to day basis, although 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:23.760 in the case of flooding, anything can happen on any 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:26.600 given day to knock things out of whack. Right, So 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:30.360 you have, um, a storm comes about, a thunderstorm, and 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:33.880 you're like, wow, it's a pretty bad storm. Um, because 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:37.880 you are capable, your area is capable of experiencing a storm. 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:40.880 Your area is capable of experiencing a freak storm, like 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:45.400 a huge thunderstorm. Sure that dumps so much precipitation on 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:47.840 on the ground in such a short amount of time 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:52.280 that these normal waterways that have been formed to hold 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:56.800 the normal amount of water become overwhelmed. The water fills up, 0:07:56.880 --> 0:08:00.800 spills over the banks, and there's your flood. Yeah, And 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:02.760 that's the key what you just said there is these 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:06.560 waterways they form over a great, great period of time. 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:09.080 You don't a river doesn't just spring up over the 0:08:09.120 --> 0:08:10.840 course of a year. Because there's a lot of rain, 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:14.240 it takes like of several years. It takes a long 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:17.880 long time to sort of get a feel I guess 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:21.000 of how much rain there is generally, And so this 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:22.960 is how big I'm gonna be if I'm a river 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:25.800 in Georgia, exactly. This is all I need to be, 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:28.200 except for the freak of currenc in. Oh my god, 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:31.040 now it's a flood. But then after a flood, it 0:08:31.080 --> 0:08:33.760 goes right back to where it was before. It's not 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:37.959 Rivers don't tend to plan their size for the worst 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:40.840 case scenario. They're very lazy. That's a great way to 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:45.160 say it, lazy lazy rivers. UM. So, like we said, 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:48.160 the the most common cause, the one that people are 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:51.079 most familiar with. Um. The most common cause of flooding 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:56.360 is um, a large storm that allows a an anomalous 0:08:56.400 --> 0:09:02.080 accumulation of precipitation. Yeah, with rain, could be uh, melting 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:06.160 ice from a mountain or snow, but rain is the 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:08.440 one we think about most often. And like you said, 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:14.559 because weather and patterns are pretty um, pretty stable over time. UM. 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:18.240 In a lot of places, depending on the season, you're 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:24.719 going to get anomalous normal precipitation, right, like monsoon's seasonal flooding. Right. 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:28.160 So with the monsoon, um, you have in the winter time, 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:31.440 the air over the land is colder than the air 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:34.079 over the ocean, So the air over the ocean is 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:36.560 rising in the air over the land is moving out 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:38.600 to fill it up, so that that means the wind 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:42.239 is blowing out toward the ocean's uh. In the summertime, 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:45.640 the opposite is true, and so the wind is blowing 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:49.440 in toward the land and that brings with it the 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:56.000 monsoon rains brings with it water and this annual monsoon flooding. Um, 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:58.600 we talked about it. We didn't call it that because 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:00.880 we're not that small, aren't. But in the how of 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:03.920 the Nile River works, yeah, exactly, it was. It was 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:07.040 and still is a very big part of their how 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:10.480 they thrived over the years was they knew that the 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:13.440 Nile would flood each year and extend the water out 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:16.559 and when it waters were seated, that left a nice 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:21.880 fertile banks on which to live and plant foods. And 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:24.520 remember we talked about some of the problems from the 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:27.599 Aswan Dam and other dams that they built along the 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:31.840 Nile to control flooding. Basically say we're gonna release this 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:34.920 amount of waters and go crops year round and people 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:40.160 aren't gonna lose their houses to the nile flooding every year. Um. 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:43.040 That is actually one of the big causes of flooding too. 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:47.160 Damn breaks. Did you see that damn video I sent you. 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:50.120 I didn't have a computer. You didn't look. You didn't 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:53.480 see it on your it was flash. Uh it's really neat. 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:55.560 I'll look at it later. I can't remember the name 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:57.640 of the damn, but it's in Washington State, And in 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:01.959 October of this year. UM, it had like a controlled 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:05.280 demolition and they just blew a hole in the bottom 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:09.360 and all of a sudden, this water search comes pouring 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:13.240 out and fills this area up, and then it starts 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:16.079 to recede, and you see the water behind the dam 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:19.120 just start to go down as the water in front 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:21.200 of the dam starts to go up. It's really neat 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:24.560 looking not to check that out. Or if you're from 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:28.560 Pennsylvania or a historian, then of course you know about 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:34.040 May thirty one nine, the Johnstown flood. Um And it 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:36.199 wasn't just Johnstown by the way, It's known as the 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:39.439 Johnstown flood, I think because that was the largest town 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:43.920 that it flooded, but it was I think fourteen miles 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:48.720 up stream from Johnstown was the South Fork damn, and 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:51.160 it hit a couple of towns on the way. Finally 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:53.920 hit Johnstown, Uh six to ten inches of rain in 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:57.720 twenty four hours, to the tune of a sixty ft 0:11:57.720 --> 0:12:01.040 wall of water going forty miles per hour wow, rushed 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:05.559 through town. UH twenty million tons not gallons, twenty million 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:09.120 tons of water. And it was the first big disaster 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:13.120 relief effort by the Red Cross. Yeah. Um, I got 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:16.600 a number of two thousand, two hundred nine deaths, UH 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:20.079 seventeen million in damages, which would be over four hundred 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:23.080 million dollars today, like close to a half a billion 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:27.200 in damages. And Springsteen fans might remember that from the 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:30.320 song how We Patrolmen. These sings about the Johnstown flood 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:36.160 really folk hero, He's all over it. We also remember 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:39.800 we talked about in the Human Caused Earthquakes episode the 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:44.520 Viant Damn in Italy, a landslide caused a wave to 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:47.480 go over the dam and killed two thousand people. That 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:49.360 seems to be the number when a damn breaks or 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:51.520 for each two thousand people die. You know what I 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:53.800 think it's cool is after having done like four hundred 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:57.880 plush shows like the our world is starting to narrow 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:01.720 a bit. You know what's really crazy, What is we've 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:05.000 already had this discussion and now we've come back to 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:07.800 having it again. That's really narrow Well. I just think 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:09.560 it's cool when you do a podcast on flooding and 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:13.360 it's also one about the Nile in clouds and volcanoes, 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:16.319 and I mean, we're still a long way from covering yeah, 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:19.400 the sun, We're a long way from covering everything. But 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:22.439 our world view is narrowing in a good way, and 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:27.960 now we're like men and knights. Um Land plays a 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:30.120 big part because you know, you can have a lot 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:32.640 of rain, but depending on what kind of land it's 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:36.080 falling on, it's gonna affect how much it floods. If 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:39.040 it floods at all, like the soil in the middle 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:41.439 of a forest, it's gonna really soak up a lot 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:45.600 of water. Hard clay or rock or obviously concrete and 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:49.320 asphalt aren't gonna soak up much if anything, so that's 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:53.040 gonna lend itself to flooding. Yeah, and um, agricultural lands, 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:55.439 crop lands that have been tilled, they're more prone to 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:57.960 flooding than woodlands. Do you want to know why? Yeah? 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:00.400 Why I was wondering. You got that. We're about to 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:05.160 circle right back again. But to earthworms, that's exactly why. 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:09.480 That's why woodlands don't flood like farmland because there's more 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:14.240 little passageways from earthworms. Yes, and if you till cropland, 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:17.720 if you till the land has a a deletrious effect 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:22.560 on the earthworm popular that word like that. Yes, the 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:26.240 earthworm population in the area, they basically leave, they take off, 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:28.520 or else they're cut in a bunch of pieces. So 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:34.520 it does have a very delus effect. Deletrious, deleterious. What 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:39.600 is it species that called out big time? It's species. 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:48.080 It's deletrious. It's not deletrious. Um say talk about species. 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:50.400 I was wrong on species because it's there are two 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:54.840 acceptable ways of saying that. No, there's a right way species. No. No, 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:57.479 if you look it up, it says species or species. 0:14:57.680 --> 0:14:59.560 I can't say anything. I can't even keep track of 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:04.320 the difference between I and I and me. Concrete an asphalt, 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:06.760 which I mentioned Josh here in the western world. There's 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:08.520 a lot of that going on. If you go to 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:10.560 a city like l A, which I lived in, as 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:15.440 you know, Uh, they have these concrete flood relief channels 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:17.320 built in. You don't even have to go to l A. 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:21.360 You can travel there via the movie Greece. Oh the 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:24.680 like the l A River basins that what that is? Yeah? Okay, yeah, 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:27.640 that is in T two. It's in the movie Them 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:30.880 and These that that you know, the where they have 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:34.600 the car, they called it the l A River, which 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:38.000 is kind of funny. Yeah. Um, before they paved it 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:41.520 with concrete. Um, they used it for the canoe scenes 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:43.640 and a lot of the Tarzan movies in the thirties. 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:48.440 It's all just smoking mirrors. Mash was in Malibu for 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:53.600 God's sakes. Um Levies Josh are another reason it can flood, 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:57.040 as we all saw with the disaster with the Katrina 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:00.640 New Orleans when the levee breaks, as Robert Plant said, 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:04.280 got no place to stay. No, you don't. And do 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:10.160 you remember earlier this year when they purposely opened the 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:14.800 Morganza spillway. Yeah, basically they sacrifice some local crop land 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:19.040 for a lot more downriver. And that's one of the points, 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:22.600 like the reverse of the thinking usually or it has 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:25.240 been historically. Well, that's the point they make about all 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:27.760 levies though, is generally they're great for that area, but 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:30.160 there's generally there's gonna be a problem on down the 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:32.920 line at some point. Well, the same thing with concrete 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:37.080 storm basins. It's the same. It's you're you're basically just saying, 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:39.760 all right, let's get the water through here, and then 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:42.640 when like the tower base runs out your county line, 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:47.160 you handle it, and here's your flood county, but beneath us. Well, 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:52.320 what I couldn't find about the Morganza spillway was the 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:56.120 the effect, Like I saw like a hundred articles on 0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:58.160 the fact that they're going to open it up. And 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:02.240 then the only article I found Poe releasing like I 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:04.239 think it was first time since nineteen seventy three they 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:06.560 opened up a lot of these gates, was like a 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:08.520 week after they said, well, it doesn't look like it's 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:10.080 going to be as bad as they thought. And that's 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:13.520 all I found. If it's the one I'm thinking of, 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:17.200 it was a huge cluster that was on the Army 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:22.439 Corps of Engineers. They they created an incorrect estimate and 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:25.720 it really screwed up a lot more land than they thought. 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:28.359 If it's the same one I'm thinking of. It was 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:31.159 this year last year. Yeah, it was spring when the 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:35.560 rivers were rising, and they said, we can't devastate New 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:38.199 Orleans again, so we're gonna open up a lot of 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:41.239 these gates, like up in like Missouri or something. Right, 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:43.240 No, no no, no, it was in Louisiana. Okay, Well, there 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:47.760 was one in Missouri where they let the levy loose 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:50.919 um and flooded some crop land and it ended up 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:53.000 like screwing things up all the way down or over 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:56.440 to like Tennessee. I can't remember, so I guess that's 0:17:56.480 --> 0:17:59.680 those are two different stories. So if you live in Louisiana, 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:01.399 I like to know the effect because I know they 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:02.800 said it wasn't as bad as they thought, but I 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:05.400 couldn't really get a pinpoint of the damage. And I 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:09.399 want to know what happened in Missouri. Okay, okay, uh, 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:12.600 let's talk about the coastline. Yeah, and we didn't mention, 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:17.680 by the way, um hurricanes too, tsunamis. Yeah, tsunamis hurricanes 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:22.680 big problems um as far as creating flood conditions. But yeah, 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:25.760 the coastline Um, you're talking about levees and dams. They 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:30.280 fall into man made ways of diverting water to other 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:36.280 people's problems. Um, And we've figured out ways of I guess, 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:41.160 protecting our beautiful coastlines from mother Nature. And that's building walls, 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:45.320 basically walls. It's like, have your worst waves, You're not 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:48.840 gonna erode this beach. But the problem is is the 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:53.119 whole process of erosion is part of creating and keeping 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:57.720 beaches healthy. Yeah and beautiful. Yes. I remember I used 0:18:57.720 --> 0:18:59.919 to go to Hunting Island, South Carolina when I was 0:18:59.920 --> 0:19:03.080 a kid, and my mom went not too long ago, 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:06.320 and she said that they have actually, like the whole 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:08.320 coastline is different now. For when I was a kid, 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:12.600 they had they had to move a lighthouse inland because 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:15.480 it had eroded so much. But they just, you know, 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:17.800 they let it happen because it is a natural part 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:23.240 of beaches, and it's a natural like oceans, beaches, rivers, 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:26.640 they're all dynamic, right exactly. You know, they're all gonna 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:29.720 move earth and water and that's just the way it's 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:31.879 supposed to be. And when humans step into try and 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:34.600 prevent that, bad things can happen. Well, and we try 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:37.200 to prevent it because we tend to settle near water. 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:40.960 It's um, each transportation it puts living on the beaches nice. 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:43.480 Well yeah yeah, but I mean even with the river too, 0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:47.520 it's like there's your crop land. Yeah, there's your easy 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:53.119 access to irrigation, easy transportation, um food water obviously, so 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:55.600 we need to live near water. And then when these 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:59.040 natural processes happened and takes our houses the way, we're like, okay, 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:01.520 let's figure out how to how to solve this. And 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:06.159 sometimes the solution is just kind of exacerbates the problem, 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:09.920 that's right, or creates a new one. Yeah, So we 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:13.720 just gotta figure things out. I think we're working on it. Uh. 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:17.240 This is one really cool part I thought was you 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:20.560 always see how you know a flood, floodwaters will wash 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:23.440 a car away or something, and it doesn't even look 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:25.639 like that much water, and you think, you know, I 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:28.040 drop my I drive my truck like through a river 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:31.280 in the North Georgia Mountains and you just plow right 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:34.280 through it and that's like twice as deep and really 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:39.280 rushing river that nature take that nature. But the difference 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:41.959 here is I thought, this is really interesting, is is 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:45.359 water what water wants? To do is level itself out. 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:47.600 So when you've got a lot of water from a 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:51.720 flood in a place where there's previously no water at all, 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:54.480 it's gonna want to find its level as soon as 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:56.920 possible by rushing really hard. So it's just gonna be 0:20:56.920 --> 0:21:00.360 a lot more force than the steady stream of a river. 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:04.080 It's really easy as that, and that's all there is too. 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:06.520 So like a couple of feet of water can wash 0:21:06.560 --> 0:21:09.720 a car away, two ft two ft of water in 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:13.600 a flood condition where it's rushing from one from a 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:17.400 higher higher level to a lower level it's balance out 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:21.480 can wash a car away, and six inches under those 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:24.040 conditions can knock you human off his or her feet. 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:26.879 And that's how people die in a flood. Well, I 0:21:26.920 --> 0:21:31.040 think half half of the deaths associated with most floods 0:21:31.080 --> 0:21:38.080 are from people trying to ford a rushing um uh 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:41.960 water in their car, sill away in their car. That's 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:45.399 the problem, because you get carried out and you're in 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:48.080 your car and you're trapped, and that's that. That's that. 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:53.400 It's very sad. Flash flooding the most dangerous of all floods. Yeah, 0:21:53.480 --> 0:21:56.720 this jogged my memory when they was talking about um, 0:21:56.880 --> 0:21:59.399 Big Thompson Canyon, Colorado. I think we might have hit 0:21:59.440 --> 0:22:01.680 on that at some point because it jogged my memory too. 0:22:02.040 --> 0:22:04.040 You want do you want to talk about? Well, yeah, 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:08.760 in nineteen seventy six, July one, Colorado was celebrating its 0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:13.840 centennial and at about five or six o'clock it started 0:22:13.920 --> 0:22:18.240 rain and it was a really weird thunderstorm that didn't move. 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:24.120 It just planted itself for four hours over Big Thompson Canyon. 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:27.560 Ranged twelve inches in four hours, and that's how much 0:22:27.600 --> 0:22:29.960 the area gets in a year usually. I mean, yeah, 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:33.600 that's crazy. In four hours and uh, a twenty ft 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:37.280 high uh rush of river going about fourteen miles an 0:22:37.320 --> 0:22:41.399 hour by nine pm washed through the canyon, and it 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:45.000 was so like out of nowhere, which is what a 0:22:45.040 --> 0:22:47.439 flash flood is. It's not like, hey, you know, with 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:49.840 the Johnstone flood, they had warnings even though people didn't 0:22:49.880 --> 0:22:52.080 heed them, and most of the times you know a 0:22:52.119 --> 0:22:54.479 flood's coming. But with a flash flood, they were just 0:22:54.520 --> 0:22:57.679 like trapped. Plus they're they're also just happened to be 0:22:57.720 --> 0:23:01.160 thousands of campers down there celebrating this centennial of Colorado. 0:23:01.480 --> 0:23:05.440 It was well, the perfect storm, but the river that 0:23:05.560 --> 0:23:09.920 feeds the canyon. Normally Big Thompson River um is apparently 0:23:10.000 --> 0:23:13.560 normally pretty slow moving, the old Big Titty, but because 0:23:13.560 --> 0:23:16.320