North California Floods 1997
In early Janurary 1997, a devestating flood struck the area of Centeral Valley. This area is prone to flooding, as Central Valley lies between the Sierra Mountain range and the coast. This flood saw 28 people killed and caused $1.8 billion worth of damage. But how was it caused and why?
The reason these floods were so severe, was becuase of the abnormality of the rainfall. Although rain had been forcast, meteorologists hadnt expected anywhere near as much rain as the was. As a result of this, people were unprepared and caught out by the floods. It continued to rain at the same rate for an entire week. Peoples houses and bussiness were all flooded in water one story deep. |
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Enitre houses were swept away, bussiness' were destroyed and hectres of land submerged under water. the total damage caused by the flood cost $35,000,000. Thats the equivilant of just short of £22,850,000. This damage was caused by the flood which was the result of a subtropical storm that meant it had rained heavily from late December '96 until early January 1997, when the amount of water thast had fallen became clear. Houses had been submerged so deep, that only the shimney pots were visible. bussinesses sunk and towns sunk in the waters of the storm. The clean up operation cost $35,000,000. The video on the left shows an area of California near the town of Taylorsville when the flood hit. the Indian Creek burst its bank and raging torrents of water destroyed anything in their path including people's homes and roads leaving people with nowhere to go.
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