September 2012 Floods

Causes
1. Global Warming
2. Torrential Rain
  1. There was also a lot of rain in a short amount of time
  2. 20mm of rain fell in the course of an hour
3. 70mph winds
  1. An accelerating jet stream causes air to rise upwards through the atmosphere and creates low pressure centres
    1. The jet stream was six miles high of which a fast wind is blowing around the planet and moves our surface pressure system
Effects
1. Primary effects
  1. Physical damage (e.g. damage to structures including bridges)
2. Secondary Effects
  1. Water Supplies
    1. Contamination of water
  2. Diaseses
  3. Crops and Food Supplies
    1. Shortage of food crops can be due to loss of entire harvest
  4. Trees
    1. Non-tolerant species can fie from suffocation
  5. Transport
    1. Transport links destroyed
      1. Hard to get emergency aid to those who need it
3. Tertiary and Long Term Effect
  1. Economic
    1. Economic hardship due to temporary decline in tourism
    2. Rebuilding costs
    3. Shortage in food leading to price increase
  2. Psycological
    1. Flooding can be highly traumatic for induviduals
      1. Inparticular where deaths, serious injuries and loss of property occur
Responses
1. People rebuilt their communities and pumped all the water out of their houses
2. The fire brigade helped people pump out the water in the villages
3. The RNLI came to save stranded people and take them to safety
4. Up to 500 properties were flooded in Lancashire and West Yorkshire

Resource summary

	Created by rosetinley over 10 years ago