I-Search+by+Beverlee

by Beverlee //Floods have done a lot of damage to China. Many people's home are damaged from the floods where family's possessions are ruined and lost forever. These people who's home were destroyed can't live in their homes anymore and sometimes have to travel on boats. Also, many people are killed from floods. Lots of people aren't aware of how strong floods are and how many loved ones are lost. Crops get ruined from floods which causes farmers to lose money. Floods are one of the natural disaster that many people aren't well aware about in how much damage it can cause. //
 * Title : Floods In China! **
 * Part I--What I already know about my topic **
 * Part II--What I Want to Find Out **
 * 1) How do floods start?
 * 2) How long does it take for floods to go away?
 * 3) Do flood only stay in one area?
 * 4) Can floods be prevented?
 * 5) Are there ways to know when a flood is going to happen?
 * 6) How much area can floods flood?


 * Part III--The Search **

My journey began when I wanted to learn more about floods in China. Since floods is a major issue in China and causes many problems for people I thought it was a good topic to research. I then went on the Internet to research things about flood. I knew a little bit about floods but I wanted to learn more. I found this website called News24 where I learned that many people in China have to more or be evacuated when flood hit. A lot of their possessions are lost along with their homes. It can be very heart breaking to know everything you own is lost forever. Then I went to another website called China Daily and learned that beside people being affected by the flood, the economy is also affected by them and can be very expensive. Also, floods are caused by heavy rainfall which is becoming a problem since it is becoming more and more frequent. Many homes and crops are destroyed which is very costly to help fix and replace them.

A few days later, I got this book called __Floods__ by Libby Koponen. It had a lot of interesting and important facts that I learned such as that floods are not usually caused by rainfall and snowmelt. That got me thinking, which information is right, this book or China Daily since this book says that floods aren't caused by rainfall but China Daily says it does. After thinking for a while, I figured out that flood do have to do with rainfall because how does the ground soak up water if it's not raining. So both sources are right but they are just written in different ways. A fact that I learned from this book was that scientists created a kind of rice that can live underwater so that people is Asia won't have to worry about getting sick or dying from failed rice crop. Another interesting fact that I learned that I never knew was that floods could be predicted. I thought only hurricanes and snow storms could be predicted. Scientists study patterns of ocean tides to figure out when a flood is coming. People could predict floods as early as the 1400s where a rain gauge was used by a Korean King to predicted floods. I thought that was really cool. When floods hit, some places use a high-volume pump to drain some of the water that the flood has caused. Fewer people are dying as the rate of floods are increasing which is good and bad. Its good that people aren't dying but its bad that floods are becoming more frequent and that as you can see, causes many problems. Also, there are different types of floods like coastal floods and flash floods. To keep water away, people build barriers that help keep places protected from the floods. But when a flood does hit, the first thing you need to make sure of is that you have clean drinking water. When the floods hit, drains overflow, contaminating the drinking water. If you do drink that water you can get very sick and there may be diseases in the water.

I wanted to find even more information about floods to get a better understanding. I found this magazine in my house that I had had for a while called Kids Discover: Extreme Weather. I learned from this magazine that monsoons can cause floods. These floods can wash whole neighborhoods which causes many people to get injured badly or even die. Its a very sad thing to learn but its true. I found out that dams and levees slow the water down which is a way that people try to prevent floods from causing many problems. In this article I learned that flash floods are the most dangerous type of floods because the water level rises really quickly. It was a small article but I learn some very good information.

I wanted to find a little more information on the Internet about Floods. I went to a website called Ready America where I learned that you and your families can get ready for floods before they hit. You should have a kit that has food that doesn't perish, water, flashlights and batteries. You should also make a plan with your family about how you will contact each other and what to do for an emergency. Also, you should listen to the radio to see if a flood could be coming or on the news. You can prepare you house for flooding by creating a barrier. This helped me understand more about what to do before a flood hits. 
 * Interview (Emailing family in China about floods)**

Some of the most important things that I learned about my topic was that floods are caused by rainfall. I never really knew that until I started researching and finding out information about floods. Also, that people create barriers to keep water out. I thought that people just let floods come and go. I didn't really think that people did things to prevent floods. But when floods do hit I found out that people use high-volume pumps to drain the water and handle the situation better. I thought that people let the floods dry out such as evaporate. I never gave much thought about how one day a flood hits and a few weeks later it basically gone. Now I know that its not just nature that help floods go away but also man (people) that help too. //
 * Part IV--What I Learned **//

"Devastating floods hit China." //News24//. Online Publishers Association, 05 July 2009. Web. 20 Apr 2010. . "Floods." Ready America. Citizen Corps, 15 May 2010. Wed. 25 May 2010. . ** "Heavy rain, floods across China kill 95." //China Daily//. China Daily, 02 July 2009. Web. 20 Apr 2010. . Koponen, Libby. //Floods//. New York: Children's Press, 2009. 48. Print. Price, Sean. "Water." //Kids Discover// 2007: 2-19. Print.
 * Bibliography