Why is Louisiana flooding so badly?

8/19/2016

FROM POPULAR SCIENCE - Sodden carpets and belongings line the streets in Louisiana, where more than 30,000 people were forced to leave their homes this week as the waters rose near Baton Rouge, killing 13 people and leading to countless rescues.

The flooring, the pictures, the clothes, are all the ruined remains of tens of thousands of homes that were damaged when the rains came this week, dumping unprecedented amounts of water on an already sodden landscape. The floods came swiftly as the water from the sky forced the rivers to outgrow their banks, ruthlessly invading neighborhoods and homes, turning peaceful streets into churning canals.

There are so many questions, but the two largest are; how did this natural disaster sneak up on us so quickly? And how can we possibly be prepared for the next one? Because there is no doubt that there will be more floods in the future.

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