♪ [Thunder and rain falling].

Look, Squeaks, it looks like it stopped raining! It’s been raining here for a few days, and the news was saying that we might even get a flood.

A flood is when there’s water all over, even where there’s usually land. Floods can be small, and only cover a little space, or they can cover an entire city. Now that it’s stopped raining, that probably won’t happen here.

But it is pretty weird to think about the ground suddenly being covered with water! Normally, when rain falls, the water can go a few places. The rain can fall into someplace already holding water, like a lake or river, or it can land on the ground, which soaks up the water like a sponge.

But have you ever tried pouring water on a sponge for a while? Eventually, the sponge can’t hold any more water, and it starts to drip. If too much rain falls too quickly, something similar happens with the ground: it becomes completely full of water.

The lakes or rivers holding the water can also become too full, and begin to overflow. If the ground is too wet to soak up the extra water, a flood starts to form, almost like a giant puddle. A normal puddle will slowly sink into the ground, but during a flood, there’s nowhere for puddles to go, so they keep growing, and growing.

Sometimes, the floodwater will cover roads, cars, and even buildings. Everything looks so different during a flood; it’s like there’s a new pond or lake. You can even see which areas are higher up in a town, and which are lower.

The high spaces stick out of the water like islands, and the low spaces get completely covered by the floodwaters. Even when the rain goes away, the floodwaters can take a long time to go back down — sometimes days or weeks. But eventually, it soaks into the ground, or evaporates and goes back into the air.

Then, the flood is over. [Squeaks squeaks]. Squeaks wants to know if you can explore a flood, and that's a good question! Floods aren't for exploring!

Even though it looks like a big pond, a flood can be dangerous. As the floodwater rises, it picks up everything it can along the ground. There can be tree branches, trash, and even cars hiding under the water.

The water can also pick up germs and other things that can make people sick if they drink the water, or sometimes if they touch it at all. It’s definitely not a good place to go swimming. [Squeaks squeaks]. What /should/ people do during a flood?

Well, it’s a lot like what people do for other big problems, like a hurricane or tornado: they make sure to be prepared. Lots of people have an emergency kit with plenty of food, water, and other supplies to stay safe until the flood is over. [Squeaks squeaks]. Exactly!

We keep an emergency kit in the Fort’s closet. If a flood did happen, we would stay inside as long as it was safe and make sure not to go too close to the water. In some places, especially near really big rivers or where it rains a lot, big floods can happen more often.

People who live in places like that might have a special location, like a flood shelter, to go if there’s a big flood. That way, they can stay out of the water if it gets too close to their homes. Luckily, floods don’t happen very often near the Fort, and this storm didn’t cause one either.

But I bet there are some good puddles outside! We should go do some splashing! Thanks for joining us!

If you want to keep learning and having fun with Squeaks and me, hit the subscribe button, and we’ll see you next time here at the Fort! ♪.