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Preparing for Flooding
Reduce the risks from flooding byidentifying risks and taking steps inadvance to reduce or eliminate them.
Identify what risks you face from aflooding event
Determine priorities
Create a work-list of actions to takebefore flooding
Evaluate resources, and ways toincrease them that can help youbefore, during and after flooding
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It can be hard tomake reasoneddecisions whenfaced with riskbecause of therole of the sub-conscious.Our Minds Are Ever Vigilant, Not That WeNotice ItWhen planning for potential disasters, it isimportant to understand the role our sub-conscious plays when faced with risk.Threats can appear with little notice, so our subconscious is always analyzing our sur-roundings to determine if action is neces-sary. If there is the chance that our well-being is at stake, stress hormones are re-leased into our system to prepare us toreact quickly. We may interpret thesechemicals as positive or negative moods.Before we consciously take note, our sub-conscious has made a judgment either thatwe should act so the threat will go away, or we should ignore it. Unfortunately, thismeans our subconscious may be causingfeelings of distress and nervousness attimes when we really want to be suave. Onthe other hand, our subconscious mayalso be working to distract us from takingaction in order to reduce threats it justconsiders too large to tackle.Signs that our subconscious is interferingin non-helpful ways:Dismissal:
“It won‟t be so bad.” “What willbe will be.”
Anxiety/Fear: Urge to control everything,hyper vigilance, feelings of vulnerability,faster heartbeats, cold hands and feet,mood swings, reduced patience, urge toleave, either the area, the mood, or thesituation.
Finding Clarity
It is possible to transfer the majority of thoughts related to flooding out of therealm of the sub-conscious, reducing thenumber of negative emotions. This can bedone by analyzing all of the key issuesthat might go wrong and creating safe-guards to deal with the possibilities.
Danger and our subconscious
Resilient Attitudes
Accepts that some things will beaffected by the flooding
Recognizes that it is possible toinfluence outcomes and reducethe number of things that can gowrong
Increases connection to commu-nity to find solutions
Expects and accepts that there
will be periods where life doesn‟t
feel very good, remembering theywill pass
Remembers to think about thesituation in the long term, notsacrificing future plans
Knows self: Reactions to stressand best ways to relax
Attitudes That Make HarmMore Likely
Ignores situation: Hoping itgoes away or works out
Considers reaching out tohelp others or to ask for help
as „imposing‟
Treats it as personal attack:Me vs. the river
Searches for targets to blame-anger without reasoned ac-tion
Treats negative emotions asproof of weakness
Views receiving help a failure
Dreads change above all else
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When the Waters Start Rising
Every storm is different, but you should expect:
Traffic problems: Don‟t assume that travel into the area will be possible.
Don‟t assume you will get advance notice: There will usually be some warning that flooding is possible
-but not always. Keep track of the weather. Never have critical plans that depend on having considerablewarning and the ability to travel.False alarms: Take every flood warning seriously, but be aware that not every warning will lead toflooding. View false alarms as an opportunity to drill and test plans.Water is less damaging when allowed to build up slowly and go down slowly. Keep that in mind whenplanning for flood-proofing. Working to keep all water out often leads to an increase in the level of damage if the attempt fails.Consider early if you will use an emergency shelter or pet shelter. It is important to keep in mind thatthey will close quickly. Often people decide to move to a shelter because they are running out of funds
only to find that the shelters have closed. You don‟t need to stay at an emergency shelter all day, and
you can usually bring bedding and some personal objects to make the experience more comfortable.
Stormwater can worsensewage problems if wastewater manholecovers areremoved.Any low-lying areafaces a risk of flood-ing, particularly if storm drains areblocked.Erosion can happenquickly as water passesthrough. Learn to lookfor signs that a landslideis possible.Less damage occurswhen water is allowedto move in and outwith little resistance.Wastewater (Sewage)Storm water With the wastewater system overwhelmed,anyone in this house whoturns on water or flushes atoilet will have a problem.When the wastewater system is overwhelmed,wastewater will travelthrough what ever opening is available:Toilets, sinks, manholes.
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