Cause and Effect Essay: Causes of Flood

There are many calamities that we experience like storm, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. The most common calamities that our country faces are storms and floods. According to PAGASA, flood is a natural hydrological phenomenon. The purpose of this essay is to enumerate and explain the causes of flood, which are tropical storms, global warming and tsunamis.

One of the causes of flood are tropical storms. According to the Forces of Nature website, storms get water from oceans and bring it towards land. Streams and rivers sometimes cannot handle the heavy rain so water overflows and produces flood. One of the reasons why we experience flood is ineffective drainage. Most drainage systems in the country cannot handle the amount of water because they are blocked due to the trashes of people throw on sidewalks. Two examples of storms that caused flood were Hurricane Camille in 1969 in Virginia and the recent Typhoon Ondoy.

The second cause of flood is Global Warming. According to the Forces of Nature website, Global Warming is the heat trapped in the earth’s atmosphere which slowly warms the earth. Global warming heats water from oceans and seas. It helps the water to evaporate faster. When a big amount of water vapor is in the atmosphere, it forms storms that causes flood on land. When the temperature of the earth increases, ice from the north and south pole would melt and it will cause the rising of the sea levels. If the seas levels rise, seas will overflow and it will cause flood on coastal areas.

The third cause of flood is tsunamis. According to the Forces of Nature website, one cause of tsunamis are high winds. High winds create waves that would hit beaches and shores. According to PAGASA, another cause of tsunamis are seismic activities. Examples are underwater volcanoes and earthquakes. When underwater volcanoes erupt or when earthquakes occur, they form tsunamis. Tsunamis are dangerous because they hit land with high speeds. Furthermore, as they approach the land, it slows down and gains height.

There are many causes of flood. Three of them are tropical storms, global warming and tsunamis. Some of the causes are natural but some are man-made like global warming. To avoid flood, we should throw our trashes in the right places to avoid the blocking of drainage and stop pollution in order to prevent worsening of global warming

References:

Flooding: Causes of Flood. Retrieved November 23, 2009, from Forces of Nature website: http://library.thinkquest.org/C003603/english/flooding/causesoffloods.shtml

Causes and Types of Floods. Retrieved November 23, 2009, from PAGASA website: http://kidlat.pagasa.dost.gov.ph/genmet/floods/cause_types.html

Reflection:

For me, it was not hard to write this essay because I used references. I only need to paraphrase the information and place it into my essay. I am satisfied with the outcome because the information in my essay is more reliable because I based it on the references I found. To improve my essay, I could research more on my topic to get more information.