There are several types of floods, and the damage each can do to your home or business can be quite different. Understanding the different types of floods and which could impact you is crucial to understanding what to do to floodproof while ensuring that your family or employees remain safe.
There are five different types of floods:
- River flood
- Coastal flood
- Flash flood
- Groundwater flood
- Sewage flood
1)   River floods result from heavy rain when water levels run over riverbanks; this can happen for several reasons:
- Â Recurring storms hitting the same area repeatedly
- Â Snow melting combined with rain
- Â A barrier fails
2) Coastal floods occur when the tide gets high. Waves can reach over 20 feet in rare instances. A storm surge is a more severe type of coastal flooding and causes catastrophic property damage, including loss of life.
3) A flash flood is excessive rainfall, usually within 6 hours. This type of flood typically starts in a creek or stream, over-running rivers and ultimately, the streets, often taking out infrastructures. Because it happens so quickly, there is no actual warning. Also, flash floods become more severe when underground water systems overflow simultaneously.
Flash floods are the most common type of flood in the United States and can be the most life-threatening, with an average speed of 9 feet per second. Even after floodwaters have subsided, dangerous conditions, such as uprooted trees, landslides, and sewage floods, remain.
Flash floods happen because:
- Â Excessive rainfall builds up quickly
- Â A dam bursts
- Â Underground water systems and drainage overflow
4) Groundwater flood occurs when the ground becomes saturated due to excessive rain. Landslides, sinkholes and mudslides are some of the most common effects of groundwater flooding.
5) Sewage flooding also occurs when the ground becomes saturated due to excessive rain. Once the ground is super-saturated, the sewage cannot flow to its destination at the sewage treatment plant, and a backwash of sewage occurs and gets deposited everywhere.
Textile Flood Walls
OTEX Specialty Narrow Fabrics® is a premier manufacturer of high-performance narrow fabrics utilized to manufacture textile floodwalls. As the leading advanced textile manufacturer, they offer a comprehensive line of products and custom product development services. They work closely with your clients to understand your products and services’ specific textile component performance requirements, improving and delivering novel product solutions on time and at optimal costs. One such application is Flex-Wall’s use of textiles in flood protection—floodproofing with deployable flood walls.
OTEX prides itself on performance excellence. Their labs’ production workflows deliver advanced innovations and ensure the strength and safety of their products. OTEX’s customer engagement team members are perceptive, proactive, and responsive to your needs. Team members are knowledgeable and provide a best-in-class experience and expertise. OTEX weaves to the highest standards to prevent injury and save lives; their teams collaborate with your teams to help you deliver the best products to your customers.
The narrow fabric markets OTEX serves include:
- Aerospace
- Defence
- Fire Safety
- Flood Protection/ Critical Infrastructure
- Industrial Safety
- Load bearing/Lift-rigging
- Medical Law Enforcement
- Outdoor/Marine
- Transportation
Some of OTEX’s high-strength wall fabric is engineered to be incorporated into protective applications to withstand rushing or standing water, such as deployable flood walls. Their wall fabrics are used globally by several companies to create flood barriers.
Point-Of-Use Flood Barriers
The Flex-Gate® Side Deploy is one of the most popular models that include a rapid-deployment fabric wall; the storage of this system is contained at the point of use, and all materials and components are readily available for deployment at all times.
Clamping to the ground and opening walls provide the sealing. The wall is bolted to a pre-installed Receiver Connection at the opposite end to complete the flood barrier.
The installation is done manually using standard hand tools to avoid any issues in the event of a power outage. The Flex-Gate is easily deployed or stowed within 30 minutes by two people.
Key Features
- Â <0.08 gal/hour/linear foot of barrier perimeter seepage
- Â Compact storage of flexible barrier
- Â No center posts required
- Â Parts storage in the Receiver Container assures all pieces are accounted for and ready to use
- Â Point-of-use storage allows deployment your facility can resume operations faster.
- Â Rapid deployment of the flood barrier wall
-  Scalable Opening Protection to 21′ wide
Other Flexible Barriers
Flood protection products provide flexibility and provide the quickest recovery time. Flexible materials provide protective devices that are storable in compact containers and can be stored at their point of use. Deploying protection in an emergency is facilitated; flexible barriers offer an extremely rapid response. The Stored at the Point-of-Use Flex-Wall® and Flex-Gate® systems are quickly deployable and protect against flood levels over 30 feet. This technology can be customized to your facility’s specific needs; OTEX’s Engineers & Certified Floodplain Managers will help you design the right solution.
Product Specifications
Constructed from textile-based materials and metal posts that can store in a small container, the Flex-Gate® Side Deploy is another type of flexible wall that can be rapidly deployed for flood protection of:
- Â Equipment,
- Â Buildings,
- Â Power stations,
- Â Doorways,
- Â And other critical structures.
The Flex-Gate’s design is scalable to accommodate a range of water heights and layouts.
The Flex-Gate® Top Deploy fits a wide range of portal openings and is a flood barrier that can be deployed for flood protection of:
- Tunnels
- Doors
- Portals
Deployment is via a motor or manually if power is unavailable; the flexible cover travels in guides during deployment and seals against them when challenged with water.
 Flex-Gate® Stairwell
The Stairwell Flex-Gate® is a dry flood protection closure that is rapidly deployed for:
- Mitigation of flooded stairwells
- Used in a wide range of applications
The OTEX Fabric Innovation Lab and Quality Control Test Lab offers:
- Design Consulting
- Mass Production
- Pilot Production
- Prototyping Engineering
- Raw Material and Assembly/Subcontract Sourcing
- Testing
For more information on how we can support your custom design, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the OTEX Services Division engineering team directly or by calling (908) 879-36
