I don’t get how houses/buildings can go under water?
In: 8
Same reason a sink can overflow. If the water doesn’t drain faster than it is accumulating, then it floods. Things don’t happen instantaneously.
if water comes in faster than it drains out, something will get wet
even if you have a good drainage system, heavy rains tend to uproot trees and plants and dislodge trash, which then flows into the drainage system and blocks it, making it drain even slower
Consider pouring water into a funnel.
Only pour a little at a time, and the water flows straight out the bottom. Start pouring in water more and more quickly and eventually you will reach a point where it cannot flow out of the bottom of the funnel quick enough and starts to build up. Slow down again and it starts to empty again, but keep on pouring and eventually the water will overflow and go everywhere.
This is exactly how rivers work. Normally the water flows along them and everything is absolutely fine – it flows down the river-funnel and out into the sea. When there is a storm the rivers start to rise, exactly like the water in the funnel when it cannot flow down the river quick enough. Eventually there is so much water that it builds up enough to overflow the banks into the surrounding land and causes a flood.
One thing to remember is that often floods end as quickly as they happen – the water does keep on moving downhill and eventually either soaks into the ground or flows into a waterway again. The problem is that for that day or few, there is so much water coming down that it backs up everywhere
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