dams
People protect areas that might flood with dams. In dire situations, they use sandbags Figure below . Dams are usually very effective, but high water levels sometimes cause a dam to break. In that case, flooding can be catastrophic. Flood waters can also overflow a dam. People may line a river bank with levees to protect against floods. These are high walls that keep the stream within its banks during floods. Flood protection in one location sometimes causes problems elsewhere. For example, a levee in one location may just force the high water upstream or downstream. This will lead to flooding in a different location. Sometimes water gets so high that the river must be allowed to flood.