California is hitting the headlines at the moment with a terrible risk of flooding after above average winter snows began to melt.
But the sad fact is that flooding is happening in American communities just about every day of the year and there is also flooding now alongside the Mississippi river.
The Pew Charitable Trusts which uses data to highlight major issues describes flooding as “a pervasive, year-round threat, affecting Americans nationwide.”
The Trust says heavy rain and rapid snow and ice melt continually causes flooding across the country, damaging homes and businesses, putting infrastructure such as roads and railways out of action and harming local economies.
Pew’s has closely analysed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Events Database and discovered that since 2000 there has been, on average, at least one flood in the US on nearly 300 days per year.
The statistics also show that all 50 states were affected by flooding in 2021.
Pew’s states: “This ever-present risk underscores the need for comprehensive resilience planning that can help safeguard communities and the critical infrastructure they depend on daily such as roadways, schools and hospitals.”
Although hurricanes and other extreme weather events always make the news, Pew’s reveals that wherever it rains it can flood.
It adds: “Flooding was reported almost as often inland as it was along the coast during the June to November Atlantic hurricane seasons over the past two decades.
“Flooding continues to be the most common and costly natural disaster in the country, with flood-related disasters causing more than $85 billion in damage and economic losses in 2021 alone. These events weaken and destroy infrastructure and upend the livelihoods of families and businesses. To reduce these costs and better prepare Americans, all levels of government must take action to plan for, fund and implement flood-resilient solutions.”
Many Americans now use FloodSax alternative sandbags as they are space-saving to store, quick and easy to deploy and it means they are protected from flooding any time, day or night, weekends and holidays – times when it’s very difficult to get hold of sandbags.
Sandbags are also no longer seen as the best option for preventing flooding. In fact, they often don’t work.
They can expensive, are very time-consuming to fill, are very heavy and unwieldy to move and stack, quickly rot when they come into contact with floodwater and spill sand all over the place which makes them very environmentally unfriendly. The sand can get down drains, clogging them up and leading to more flooding.
FloodSax come vacuum-packed in packs of five so are exceptionally space-saving to store. To transform them into instant sandless sandbags, simply immerse them in water and the gelling polymer inside the FloodSax absorbs the water and retains it. The bag then grows in size until it becomes a 20kg ‘sandbag’ but without any sand. They are largely biodegradable so can be thrown in landfill after they’ve been used.
They are multi-purpose and flexible. In their dry state they are very flat with a large surface area so can be used to absorb leaks, drips, spills and floods inside homes and businesses, often in hard-to-reach places such as beneath floorboards and under boilers.
FloodSax are exceptionally robust and will keep their shape for two or three months. They have a guaranteed shelf-life of at least 5 years before they are used due to the high quality of their vacuum-packing.
Almost 3 million FloodSax have now been sold worldwide, many in the USA.
To find out more about FloodSax in the US email us at info@floodsaxus.com, phone us on 800 255 4208 ext 121 or visit our website at https://www.floodsaxus.com/
Source for the story: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2022/12/15/flooding-is-nearly-a-daily-occurrence-throughout-the-us