Flood reports have been developed for many rivers in Washington State. Most of these reports, and the ones that are most readily accessible, have been developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Other reports have been developed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers and by some local agencies.
These reports are a good source of flow information since they were developed to analyze the flows during flooding conditions of a particular river or stream. The types of calculations used by the agency conducting the analysis are more complex than the rational method or USGS regression equations and because of this are more accurate. The increased time required to perform these complex calculations is not justified for the typical structure that WSDOT is designing; however, if the analysis has already been performed by another agency, then it is in WSDOTs best interest to use this information. Flood study data should never be used in place of published flow records.
The OSC Hydraulics Branch maintains a complete set of FEMA reports and also has several Corps of Engineers flood reports. Regional Environmental Offices should be contacted for local agency reports.
