The Hurricane-Flood-Landslide Continuum

The global losses of life and property from the floods, landslides, and debris flows caused by tropical storms are staggering. One key to reducing these losses, both in the United States and internationally, is to improve forecasts of pending events in a time frame of several hours to days before the event.

In some instances, the loss of life and property is the direct result of high winds and heavy rains. However, 82% of tropical cyclone deaths are due to flooding (Fig. 1), most of which occur well inland. For example, in 1998, Hurricane Mitch deluged parts of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua with rain, triggering intense floods and thousands of landslides that …