OUTLINE

Hurricane damage occurs not only from high winds but also from unusually high rainfall and coastal storm surges. As the U.S. east coast has accepted increased development, these potential impacts have increased over time. Flood damage includes damage to homes and buildings, roadways, and utility systems.  Predicting how much damage may occur and where is tricky because both the path of the hurricane as it comes over land and the amount of time it stays over one area are both unknown.  In this exercise, you will use some real weather and flooding data to construct a model that predicts how much flooding will occur based on the amount of rainfall.  You will then use that model to predict the flood damage caused by Hurricane Floyd in 1999. You will compare your flood damage estimate with the actual damage to see how well your model works. The only resource to complete the exercise is Excel 2000 or later for Mac or Windows. Here is the outline for the exercise.

IMPORTANT CONCEPTS

MODEL 1

STEP 1: OBTAINING FLOOD STAGES
STEP 2: DERIVING STREAMFLOW AND GAGE HEIGHT RELATIONSHIPS
STEP 3: DERIVING THE RELATION BETWEEN WEATHER CONDITIONS AND STREAMFLOW

Temperature, Rainfall Data, and Streamflow Data
Adding Season Data
Deriving the Streamflow Model

STEP 4: DECIDING IF THERE IS FLOODING and HOW MUCH

APPENDIX INSTRUCTIONS

Weather Data (Rainfall and Temperature)
Obtaining Precipitation Data
Obtaining Streamflow Data

These materials were prepared as part of the MEAD Expedition of the NCSA Alliance. The instructional materials are intended for high school or undergraduate students and are part of the ongoing Education Outreach and Training Program of the Alliance funded by the National Science Foundation.
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