The American Flood Research home page is the official online portal of the American Flood Research organization, a nonprofit dedicated to documenting and studying major floods in the United States through eyewitness accounts, photographs, and hydrological data. It serves as both a public archive and a research hub, offering interactive maps, historical flood timelines, and downloadable reports for communities, journalists, and scientists.
Background and Mission
American Flood Research was founded in the early 2000s by a group of meteorologists, historians, and community volunteers who noticed that many flood records were scattered across local archives or lost entirely. The organization’s mission is to create a centralized, open-access database that captures the human and physical dimensions of flooding—not just the water levels, but also how people experienced and responded to the events. The home page reflects this mission by prioritizing user-submitted stories and photos alongside official gauge data.
The site grew out of a pilot project that cataloged the 1993 Great Mississippi Flood, which affected nine states and caused over $15 billion in damage. That project’s success led to a permanent platform, and today the archive covers more than 200 significant flood events, from the 1889 Johnstown Flood to Hurricane Harvey in 2017. The home page’s searchable timeline is one of its most visited features, allowing users to filter by state, year, or flood type (riverine, coastal, flash, or dam failure).
How the Home Page Is Organized
The layout is deliberately simple: a large search bar sits at the top, followed by three main sections—Recent Floods, Featured Collections, and Community Contributions. The Recent Floods section highlights events from the past two years, with links to preliminary reports and requests for public input. Featured Collections curates deep dives into major disasters, such as the 1927 Great Mississippi Flood or the 1972 Rapid City Flood, presenting scanned documents, oral histories, and before-and-after aerial imagery.
Below that, the Community Contributions section displays newly uploaded photos and stories, each tagged with a location and date. Users can filter contributions by state or decade, and every submission is reviewed by a volunteer historian before being added to the permanent archive. The home page also includes a quick-access toolbar for the most common tasks: submitting a record, downloading data, and requesting a speaker for schools or civic groups.
Key Features and Tools
Beyond the archive, the home page offers several practical tools that set it apart from generic weather sites:
- Interactive Flood Map – A GIS-based map showing all cataloged events, color-coded by severity. Clicking a marker reveals a summary, links to full reports, and any available oral histories.
- Historical Flood Timeline – A scrollable, decade-by-decade overview of major floods, with one-line descriptions and links to detailed entries.
- Data Download Portal – Free access to cleaned datasets of peak streamflow, rainfall totals, and damage estimates for research or educational use.
- Oral History Archive – Audio and transcribed interviews with survivors, rescue workers, and hydrologists, searchable by keyword or location.
These tools are designed to be used by middle-school students writing reports as easily as by professional hydrologists. The data download portal, for instance, offers both raw CSV files and simplified summaries, so users can choose their level of technical detail.
How to Use the Home Page for Research
If you are looking for information on a specific flood, the most efficient path is to use the search bar and type the event name (e.g., “1965 Denver flood”) or a city and year. The results page will show all related items—reports, photos, oral histories, and data—in a single list. For broader research, such as “floods in the 1930s,” the timeline tool is more effective because it groups events by decade and lets you click through to each one.
For those wanting to contribute, the Submit a Record form is straightforward: you upload a photo or document, add a date and location, and write a brief description. The organization asks that you only submit items you own or have permission to share, and they provide a simple copyright release form. Once submitted, your item appears in the Community Contributions section within a few days, pending review.
A common misconception is that the site only covers catastrophic events. In fact, the archive includes many smaller floods that had significant local impact, such as the 2008 Columbus Day storm in Oregon or the 2016 Ellicott City flood in Maryland. This breadth makes the home page useful for regional historians and local planners who need context beyond national headlines.
Common Problems and Limitations
Like any crowd-sourced archive, the home page has limitations. The most frequently reported issue is that older floods have sparse photographic evidence, so entries from the 19th century often rely on newspaper clippings and written accounts rather than images. Another limitation is geographic bias: states with active volunteer networks, such as Texas and Pennsylvania, have richer documentation than states with fewer contributors. The organization acknowledges this on its “About” page and actively recruits volunteers in under-represented regions.
Users occasionally complain that the search function returns too many results for common terms like “flood” or “river.” The site’s advanced search (accessible via the gear icon) allows you to narrow by state, date range, and media type, which usually solves the problem. If you encounter a broken link or a missing file, the home page has a “Report an Issue” button that sends a direct message to the webmaster.
Comparisons to Other Flood Databases
The American Flood Research home page is often compared to two other major resources: the National Weather Service’s flood archive and the USGS’s streamflow database. The NWS site is excellent for real-time alerts and official forecasts, but it does not maintain a long-term historical archive with photographs and personal stories. The USGS provides precise gauge data going back decades, but it lacks the human element that American Flood Research emphasizes.
What sets American Flood Research apart is its focus on narrative—the site treats floods as community events, not just hydrological phenomena. For example, the entry on the 1936 Hartford flood includes a 20-minute oral history from a woman who was a child at the time, describing how her family escaped by rowboat. Such personal accounts are rare in government databases, making this home page a valuable complement to official records.
Safety and Accuracy in Flood Research
When using the home page for research, it is important to remember that the site is an archive, not a source of real-time safety information. For current flood warnings or evacuation orders, you should always consult the National Weather Service or your local emergency management office. The historical data on the site, while carefully reviewed, is not a substitute for professional engineering analysis. For example, the damage figures listed are often preliminary estimates that were later revised, so they should be cited as “as reported at the time.”
The organization also takes steps to ensure the accuracy of user submissions. Every photo is checked for obvious manipulation, and any claim that seems exaggerated is flagged for review. In the “Research Guidelines” section, the site advises users to cross-reference any data they plan to use in publications with official sources. This caution is especially important for climate studies, where small errors can compound over time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the American Flood Research home page free to use?
Yes, all features on the home page are free, including the interactive map, data downloads, and oral history archive. The organization is funded by grants and donations, and there is no paywall or subscription requirement.
Can I submit my own flood photos or stories?
Absolutely. The site encourages public contributions. Use the Submit a Record form on the home page, upload your file, and provide a date and location. A volunteer will review it and, if approved, it becomes part of the permanent archive.
Does the site cover floods outside the United States?
No, the archive is strictly limited to floods within the United States and its territories. The organization’s mission is to document American flood history, so international events are not included.
How do I cite information from the home page in a school paper?
The site provides a “Cite This Page” button on every entry, which generates a formatted citation in MLA, APA, and Chicago styles. You can copy it directly, but double-check the date you accessed the page.
Is the data on the site reliable for scientific research?
It is a good starting point, but not a primary source. For peer-reviewed studies, you should verify any numbers against official USGS or NOAA records. The site’s own guidelines recommend this cross-referencing.
What is the best way to find a specific flood from the 1950s?
Use the timeline tool and select the 1950s decade, then scroll through the list. Alternatively, type the state and “1950s” into the search bar to narrow results. If you know the exact year and city, that will give you the most direct results.
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