Flood watch or warning: when to prepare, move higher, and turn around

Use the exact product name

Outlooks, forecasts, watches, and warnings require different decisions

The National Weather Service issues several flood-related products. Read the headline, affected area, valid time, source, and instructions. A rain forecast is not a flood warning, and a broad outlook does not describe conditions at one road or river.

Hydrologic or excessive-rainfall outlook

An outlook is an early heads-up that flooding may become a concern. It can cover a broad area and may be issued days in advance. Use it to review routes, plans, and alert methods.

Forecast

A local forecast describes expected rain and timing. A river forecast estimates water level or flow at a specific point. Forecasts help with planning, but they are not automatically a watch or warning.

Flood Watch

A watch means current or developing conditions are favorable for flooding. Flooding is possible, not certain or necessarily imminent. Prepare to change plans and be ready to act.

Flood Warning

A warning means flooding that seriously threatens life or property is occurring, imminent, or highly likely. Follow the warning instructions and local emergency officials now.

Warnings · Take action

Flash-flood and river-flood warnings describe different timing

Flooding is not one event type. A Flash Flood Warning is urgent because dangerous water can develop very rapidly. A Flood Warning can cover serious areal flooding or a river expected to exceed a damaging level. Both deserve immediate attention, but the safest action depends on the warning text and where you are.

Never assume the danger ended because rainfall eased at your location. Runoff can continue moving downstream, rivers can keep rising, and roads can remain damaged or closed. Read each update until the warning expires or officials say the area is safe.

Road safety

Water over a road is a reason to turn around

Floodwater can hide a washed-out roadway, missing shoulder, debris, current, or a depth that changes from one vehicle length to the next. Darkness and heavy rain make those hazards even harder to recognize. A familiar road is not safe merely because you have crossed it before.

• Never drive around a barricade or through water covering a road.
• Do not follow another vehicle into floodwater; its success does not prove your route is safe.
• Do not walk or swim through floodwater to inspect a road, home, culvert, or stream.
• Keep children away from storm drains, ditches, culverts, creeks, and fast-moving water.
• Choose a different route or delay the trip. A forecast break in rain does not confirm that roads are open.

Ready.gov says six inches of moving water can knock a person down and one foot can sweep a vehicle away. These are safety warnings, not measurements to test. You cannot reliably judge current, depth, or the road surface from the driver's seat.

If a warning includes you

Move to the safer place named in the warning

Flood response is location-specific. Higher ground may be safest in one situation; a higher floor or sheltering in place may be safer in another. Evacuation routes can also flood. Follow the official warning and local emergency instructions instead of applying one rule to every building and road.

1. Read the affected area and verify that your location or route is included.
2. Follow evacuation orders immediately and use the route officials provide.
3. Move away from streams, washes, drainage channels, low crossings, and underpasses.
4. Stay off bridges over fast-moving water and do not enter a closed attic where rising water could trap you.
5. Call 911 for an immediate life-threatening emergency; do not travel to watch or photograph flooding.

Before and after

Prepare before water starts rising and wait for the all-clear afterward

The watch stage is the time to reduce pressure on later decisions. Know how you receive warnings, where higher ground is, which roads flood first, and how medicines, mobility needs, pets, and power loss change the household plan.

• Keep Wireless Emergency Alerts enabled and have another reliable way to receive official information.
• Store important documents in a waterproof container and keep necessary supplies ready.
• Know more than one evacuation route, but use only routes that officials say are open.
• Return home only when authorities say it is safe.
• Avoid contaminated floodwater, wet electrical equipment, downed power lines, and unstable buildings.
• Use generators only outdoors and well away from doors, windows, and vents.