Suggestions on surviving a flood

There are obvious aspects of preparation as in bugging out. However in this current issue the powers that be failed to warn any one, so being caught somewhere surrounded by water you can't escape is a very real issue.

feel free to adjust the priorities but these are mine.
1. secure all water and food in water proof containers i.e. trash bags
2. secure shelter above the water level, with room to spare , in a structure with good foundation and away from rivers .
3. personal flotation device , trash bag or shopping bags or regular PFD .
4. 100 ' para cord or equivalent any thing to secure yourself and your things. make sure you bags with things can float.
5. communications, radio and or whistle or banging against something to attract attention, if you want attention. Ziploc bags are better then nothing for keeping electronics dry. If you can't do that at least remove the battery. Water generally will not hurt electronics if there is no power. not being turned on is not enough, there is still power being used and removal is the only solution.
feel free to add.

 

I'm thinking that #1 would be staying the hell out of a flood plain to begin with. At some point people have to take responsibility for their own choices. My current choice is to live in an area that has tornados-so I built a badass shelter. You would never catch me living in an area that is at or below sea level-no way you are gonna stop a flood there. The beach house doesn't count to me because it's a weekend place and no ones goes there in extreme weather other than to board it up if a hurricane is coming. If a person is going to live in a flood zone or on an island with active volcanoes they shouldn't she-dawg when their house floats away or is covered in lava-they either knew the risks and bet against them or the thought never entered their mind and are too stupid to live anyway

 

Not every one knows they live in a potentially hazardous location till something occurs.
many years ago we bought a mobile home in a mobile home park. and later found that is had been a swamp. no one told us that from the start so we didn't know what to expect when it was flooded.
When your income dictates what you can afford,not a whole lot of questions are asked. Obviously experienced prudent buyers know better.
But say your a business man visiting Houston and caught in that flood . IF you've got gear in the car now under water ,what are you going to do ??

 

#1 Listen, when they tell you to leave, leave.

 

The best prep, don't live below sea level, in a flood plain or near the cost where it's known for flooding.
I figure is you are in an established flood area and your house is not built 10 to 15 feet up off the grade on stilts then prepping is pointless until that gets done or you get out of there.

 

I was reading up on preparing for a flood and one of the things suggested was to chain down your fuel tanks. That makes sense to me because I have seen photos before of propane tanks floating and moving with the water.

As for the original question, sometimes floods happen. So if you are in a historic storm, one that happens every 100-500 years then what do you do? How does one prepare?

 

I noticed a lot of these so called "500 year floods" are happening every 10 to 20 years pretty regularly.
Unless the Indians were keeping weather records and flood gauge readings our weather men have no idea what an actual 500 year flood looks like.
All they can do is guess, and how often are they wrong?
Another reason they say everything is "a 500 or 1,000 year flood" also supports the man made global warming lie. Which they all have to at least pretend to worship if they want a job.

 

No they do not know what they look like but flooding in odd areas happens. Often areas that have had forest fire become susceptible to flash flooding. Plus is a really soaking rain happens, flooding occurs where it normally doesn't.

For the list I would add a beacon of some sort. I have a few flashlights and lanterns that have strobes and flash settings. The goal would be to attract attention if rescue needed.

 

Full gasoline tanks will float on water and the next thing you know you have gasoline spilling in your garage/shed etc. Never a good thing to find!

 

100 or 500 year flood plains doesn't mean it only floods that high once every 100 or 500 years. It means for any given year there is a 1 out of 100 or 1% chance there will be a flood that high. It is very possible, though unlikely, to have two years with 100 year level floods back to back.

100-year flood - Wikipedia

 

I'm not trying to pick a fight here, but who in their right mind buys ANY property without checking out everything out first? I can tell you the history, the geological make up, how much rainfall/snowfall, avg temps, water table, easements, ect about every piece of property I own.

Everybody's income dictates what they can afford.
Everyone knew this storm was coming. If I had business in Houston it would be finished and my ass would be gone period. If my business could not be concluded before the storm hit, my ass would still be gone and I'd worry about it later-I can't make or spend money if I drown.

 

make sure you have your insurance and other financial paperwork and ID's in a water proof container to carry with you....

 

I'm surviving potential future floods by being 900+ feet ASL.

 

After your sewage stops working, You have to break out the Ol' 5 gallon bucket.
Just remember an empty 5 gallon bucket will try to float off!

 

There are floods and then there are FLOODS. Family homesteaded land about 6 miles from the Red River in Dakota in 1893. Can't even usually see the river. The floods they had a few years back put about a foot of water around the house and barn. While there are a lot of places that are known to be likely to flood and the government lists them as in the flood zone etc, I know of no way of predicting the water level and the danger area when you get 50 + inches of rain in a few days as they did in parts of Texas. Like it or not, the so called Acts of God events, bite big time. Fire, historic floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, lightning, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, etc, can really ruin even the best laid plans and while you can minimize their effects, at some points you just lose. About all I can do as an individual for those in Texas is pray for them, and a lot of them are going to lose almost ever thing they own. My preps, stored in a cool dehumidified basement in order to maximize storage life would be toast and my house, being 10 feet above the flood plain per the government, would be under several feet of water in a situation like they have with the water 20 feet above the river's usual flood stage. At some point for all of us the situation changes from being prepared to survive in relative safety and comfort, to just trying to stay alive another few minutes and hopefully survive the event. God willing that we as individuals never have that experience, but a lot of our brothers and sisters in Texas are going thru that at this time and while we may not like big brother government, it seems to makes more sense to help them then to spend another trillion on Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

1. Buy an inflatable boat.
2. Buy SCUBA equipment.
3. Use the SCUBA equipment to stay alive while you pump up the boat.

 

If there is a 1% chance every 500 years of a certain flood level being reached then what are the chances of "a 500 year flood" happening every 10 to 30 years?

Since science is based on observation, I can safely say no one has been observing the lengths of these water ways for the last 500 years. Even then to really be sure there is infact a 1% chance in 500 years a certian level will be reached you would ideally have at least 1,000 years of observation. More would be better.
So the how ever many year flood thing is really just a bunch of made up BS.