FLOOD01659

• County: Statewide
• Title: Floodplain Management Handbook
• Date: 9/1/1981
• Prepared By: Flood Loss Reduction Associates
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Floodplain Report/Masterplan

carried by floodwaters. Examples of
direct damages are houses washed away
or damaged beyond repair, contents and
equipment damaged or destroyed, crops
destroyed in the fields, utility lines
knocked down, and vehicles that are
ruined. These direct damages are a
sizable share of total flood losses.
About half of the direct flood losses
occur to agriculture.

Indirect damages are those caused
other than by direct contact of flood-
waters with property, such as
iisruptions of communications, transpor-
tation or utility services. Indirect
flood damages are substantial but
iifficult to assess. They are probably
less than direct damages.

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Economic losses other than direct
and indirect damages include such
things as the costs to individuals and
the community for emergency actions,
care for evacuees, cleanup after the
flood, and wages and sales lost because
of interruption of business. These
losses are also difficult to estimate,
but are potentially as large as direct
damages, especially in urban areas.

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The economic losses from floods
fall heaviest on those individuals and
communi ties in the floodplain, but
everyone is affected to some extent.
Many types of costs, such as for repair
of highways and schools and public aid
for relief and recovery, are paid out
of general public funds.

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than just the damage to
flood fighting, rescue,

property.
cleanup,

The full economic cost of floods is far more
It includes the costs for such things as
business interruptions, and aid to victims.

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