September 2012 Floods

September 2012 Floods

1. Causes

   • Global Warming
   • Torrential Rain
     • There was also a lot of rain in a short amount of time
     • 20mm of rain fell in the course of an hour
   • 70mph winds
     • An accelerating jet stream causes air to rise upwards through the atmosphere and creates low pressure centres
       • The jet stream was six miles high of which a fast wind is blowing around the planet and moves our surface pressure system

2. Effects

   • Primary effects
     • Physical damage (e.g. damage to structures including bridges)
   • Secondary Effects
     • Water Supplies
       • Contamination of water
     • Diaseses
     • Crops and Food Supplies
       • Shortage of food crops can be due to loss of entire harvest
     • Trees
       • Non-tolerant species can fie from suffocation
     • Transport
       • Transport links destroyed
         • Hard to get emergency aid to those who need it
   • Tertiary and Long Term Effect
     • Economic
       • Economic hardship due to temporary decline in tourism
       • Rebuilding costs
       • Shortage in food leading to price increase
     • Psycological
       • Flooding can be highly traumatic for induviduals
         • Inparticular where deaths, serious injuries and loss of property occur

3. Responses

   • People rebuilt their communities and pumped all the water out of their houses
   • The fire brigade helped people pump out the water in the villages
   • The RNLI came to save stranded people and take them to safety
   • Up to 500 properties were flooded in Lancashire and West Yorkshire