Flooding

Flooding hazards can threaten any community in any location in the United States. Flooding can occur over a period of weeks or days, or minutes.

You can check the USGS National Water Dashboard to get flow rates and gage height of rivers at certain positions in Delaware County and Southeastern PA. This newly revamped dashboard can be extremely helpful in identifying or confirming flooding conditions when they occur.

FEMA AWR-362 Flooding Hazards Course

AWR-362 - Flooding Hazards: Science & Preparedness

Flooding hazards can threaten any community in any location in the United States. Flooding can occur over a period of weeks or days, or minutes, thus this course focuses the identification and assessment of hazards due to flooding to enable proper preparedness and response. As flooding is one of the top meteorological killers in the United States, and poses particular hazards to emergency responders, this introduction to recognizing flooding threats is essential for developing safe communities.

Flooding Hazards: Science and Preparedness is an awareness-level, eight-hour course that addresses the current science of the causes of floods (both meteorological and otherwise), flood forecasting, flood risk assessment, and best practices for preparation and mitigation for both short- and long-fuse flooding events.  Key concepts and discussion topics will be reinforced with facilitator-led group activities that utilize real-world flood scenarios.  These activities will illustrate the diverse challenges and complexities that can occur during actual flood events while building participants' experience and confidence in anticipating, heeding warnings, and responding to floods.

The goal of this course is to prepare participants to recognize the conditions that lead to flood events, evaluate their community's risk, and prepare appropriately.

Course Modules:

  • Science of Flooding
  • Flood Risk
  • Flood Forecasting and Public Information
  • Safe Preparation and Mitigation for Floods