How High Do Flood Protection Barriers Need To Be?

Easily one of the most important responsibilities of owning a home

, or even just being the caretaker of a piece of property is being charged with protecting it from the threat of disaster. While it's obviously impossible to protect from everything, it's important to be aware of one of the most common causes of expensive property damage: flooding. There are a huge number of variables that come into play when it's time to make preparations for this sort of thing, and all of them should take place long before storm season actually starts. One of the most fundamental questions to ask is about the necessary height of flood protection barriers.

For people who have never encountered a true flood at some point in their lives, or for people who have just recently moved to an area that's more prone to flooding, coming up with a proper answer to this requires a slightly more thorough understanding of the nature of flooding, and may also require the dispelling of a few misconceptions. When a lot of people envision an ensuing flood, they seem to picture a literal wall of water that comes roaring down their street, and think that there's simply no way to defend against such a thing.

It's very easy to underestimate the destructive power of a torrent of water that's even as shallow as six inches to one foot. Water is dense and heavy, and carries a tremendous amount of momentum when it's in motion. It's enough to easily move parked vehicles. Flood currents that are just two to three feet deep have been known to shift houses off of their foundations, provided that they're moving fast enough.

Still, the important point is that private flood protection barriers around a home don't have to be that high in order to provide a level of protection that's more than adequate for nearly all adverse weather conditions. It's more crucial to worry about the direction that potential flood waters could come from, based on the elevation of the home in question relative to the land around it, and arrange short, sturdy flood berms that can divert flow away, and further downstream.

This way, even minor floods that would probably only cause water seepage issues, rather than a total loss of property, are easily handled without making it look like the land around the house is being turned into a veritable fortress. Anyone that's looking to install such flood barriers will be well-served by doing a bit of research into the historical weather patterns of the community that they reside in, such as by conversing with people that have lived there for a long time. This is especially true for coastal areas that are at or below sea level, and may be exceptionally prone to dangers such as storm surge.

Copyright (c) 2012 Floodsense

by: Kevin Williams

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