Flood

Flood

A flood is an overflow of water that submerges land. The European Union (EU) Floods Directive defines a flood as a covering by water of land not normally covered by water. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Flooding may result from the volume of water within a body of water, such as a river or lake, which overflows or breaks levees, with the result that some of the water escapes its usual boundaries, or may be due to accumulation of rainwater on saturated ground in an areal flood.

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Famous quotes containing the word flood:

    The mighty river flowing dark and deep,
    With ebb and flood from the remote sea-tides
    Vague-sounding through the City’s sleepless sleep,
    Is named the River of the Suicides;
    James Thomson (1834–1882)

    The vines of her arms
    didn’t cling to the ends of his clothes,
    or did she plant herself in the doorway,
    hurl herself at his feet,
    or utter the word “Stay!”
    But as that fool began to go
    at the time when it was dark with swarming clouds,
    the slim girl blocked her lover’s way
    with only a rising river
    made with her flood of tears.
    Amaru (c. seventh century A.D.)

    Men hold themselves cheap and vile; and yet a man is a fagot of thunderbolts. All the elements pour through his system: he is the flood of the flood, and fire of the fire; he feels the antipodes and the pole, as drops of his blood: they are the extension of his personality.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)