Different types of floods can threaten your safety in the outdoors, including river floods and flash floods. Flash floods, especially, can threaten your survival, as they’re usually the most lethal type of flood, resulting from extremely rapid surface water runoff. When flash floods occur, people usually have little time to flee the area in search of higher ground, but when flooding occurs more gradually, communities are often notified as rivers near the flood stage.

If you’re hiking and camping in the backcountry, however, you might not have access to community alerts, so be sure you always prepare in advance to make a safe campsite selection. Do your research by finding National Weather Service alerts for the area and checking with local rangers about conditions, terrain, and flood danger. In addition to the information you find, use these tips to help you choose a flood-safe site:

• Be especially aware of weather conditions that lead to flooding, including the following: forceful rain occurring over several hours; steady rain occurring over several days; rain in conjunction with spring snowmelt; a tropical storm threatening the area; and any rain that causes a rapid rise in surrounding bodies of water.
• In hilly or mountainous terrain and in canyon country, always consider the threat of flash flooding, as water can be siphoned into ravines, gullies and canyons, causing unexpected and rapid surface water runoff.
• If you plan on hiking down into canyons or in valleys, monitor what the water is doing upstream as you are hiking downstream, as rain will gather upstream and then gain surprising momentum as it flows downstream.

• It might not be raining where you are for a flash flood to come crashing into your campsite, so make sure that you check flood potential in nearby watersheds when you’re researching an area’s flood potential.
• Avoid camping on low ground next to streams in hilly or mountainous terrain, in particular.
• Choose a campsite that has some elevation (but not completely exposed to lightning danger), away from canyon bottoms, gullies, ravines, and other water channels.
• If you are camping near water, look for the high water mark by identifying the debris line, and make sure that you set up your camp well above the high water mark.
• Plan an escape route, and make sure that all members of your party area aware of it. Look around you when it is still light to identify a high feature where you will all meet if you need to abandon your camp.
• If you believe that you’re in danger of a flood, climb to higher ground immediately, even if it might seem like an inconvenience to leave your camp. If you see or hear a flood coming, save yourself before you try to save your camp; run to higher ground even if you must leave your gear behind.