Vernon Ehlers: “Mr. Speaker, most Americans do not understand the power of floods until they encounter them. Floods cause an immense…”

“Mr. Speaker, most Americans do not understand the power of floods until they encounter them. Floods cause an immense amount of damage to this Nation and also cause an average of approximately 100 deaths per year throughout America. Most Americans are not aware of how dangerous they are and do not realize that we lose almost as many people to floods as we do to tornadoes within this country. Flooding affects every Congressional District in this country. The force of only 6 inches of swiftly moving water can easily knock people off their feet and carry them away into a nearby stream. The force of 2 feet of moving water can sweep cars away. I am sure all of us have seen night after night on the evening news pictures of cars being trapped in water and we say, how could that happen? How could these people not know the danger? But it fools us. We think it is a small amount of water, but there is so much force that it can easily stall a car or sweep it away and carry it down the river. The public needs more useful information about flooding, about the nature of floods, the damage from floods, and, most importantly, they need more and better information about when floods are likely to occur.”