Flash flooding can happen at any time, making it unpredictable and hard to prepare for. Even the name “flash flood” implies that they can appear out of nowhere and cause all kinds of damage.
“A flash flood warning can take place during six hours or less, and that can happen in a flash,” WSLS 10 Meteorologist Parker Beasley said. “It can happen almost instantaneously.”
However, there is a difference in what it means to issue a flood watch, versus issuing a flood warning.
“A flood watch means that we are anticipating the potential for heavy rainfall which could lead to flash flooding,” Beasley said. “A flood warning, would then lead to those conditions.”
If flash flooding does occur, rising water levels should never be underestimated.
Dr. Craig Ramseyer, an Associate Professor within the Department of Geography at Virginia Tech, says not only is the water deeper than it looks, but it’s also moving at a rapid pace.
“A lot of times people could think, yeah, I could swim. There’s so much debris in the water that the water velocity is so intense,” Dr. Ramseyer said. “There are trees and there are all kinds of obstacles in the way. Even the best swimmers in the world may not survive that.”
Flash flooding can also happen anywhere, even in places where it isn’t supposed to. This spells trouble for unsuspecting people.
“A lot of people do not realize that they may not even be in a flood area, we hear this all the time after a catastrophic event,” Dr. Ramseyer said. “The river is way down there, we had no idea we’ve never seen this happen before.”
Even for those who don’t know if they’re in a danger zone, there are ways to get an alert straight on your phone.
“On the settings on your phone, if you go to notifications and scroll all the way down if you have an iPhone, you want to make sure you have emergency alerts turned on. That comes directly from the government,” Beasley said.