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<br />Area problem <br />Area in which flooding causes <br />major damage to agricultural, <br />urban, and other developments <br /> <br />Unshaded area may not be <br />o problem-free, but problem was <br />not considered major <br /> <br />Reasons for Intensified flood <br />damage <br />. Urban, suburban, and industrial <br />development on flood plains <br /> <br />O Accelerated runoff from urban <br />areas <br /> <br />... Inadequate upstream watershed <br />_ management <br /> <br />* Loss of flood control from in- <br />adequate structural systems <br /> <br />* Tidal effects along coasts during <br />storms and hurricanes <br /> <br />Flooding Problems in the <br />United States. This map <br />shows the areas of the <br />country in which flood <br />damage is most prevalent <br />and identifies some of the <br />causes of flooding in the <br />respective areas. <br /> <br />4 <br /> <br /> <br />In the United States, approximately 160 million acres <br />of land are in floodplains, with more than 6 million <br />dwellings and a large number of nonresidential buildings <br />located there. Periodic inuncbtion of these floodplains is <br />responsible for more damage to the built environment <br />than any other type of natural disaster The following fig- <br />ures indicate the seriousness of the problem <br />. In the six-year period between 1973 and 1979, there <br />occurred 193 major natural disasters and 77 <br />Presidentially declared emergencies; of these approxi- <br />mately 80 percent involved flooding <br />. In 1978, the total flood damage-both economic and <br />social-has been estimated to have been $3.8 billion <br />. The estimated average property loss in the 1970's was <br />over $1.7 billion annually <br />. In 1978, 17 states suffered flood damage serious <br />enough to be declared disaster areas. <br />. In 1979, Hurricane Frederic alone caused $1.8 billion <br />in damages, much of it from flooding <br /> <br />Response to Flooding <br />There have been many attempts to moderate the impact <br />of flooding, with modern efforts dominated by structural <br />flood control measures devised to reduce or eliminate <br />flooding itself or to protect areas from the effects of <br />flooding. However, the continuing damage due to flood- <br />ing and current awareness of the nature of flooding have <br />led to a shift tm\'''Jrd a more comprehensive range of <br />flood cbmage reduction methods. Attention has turned <br />from total reliance on dams, levees, ete, to include non- <br />