floodway

[fluhd-wey]

noun

1. the channel and adjacent shore areas under water during a flood, especially as determined for a flood of a given height.

floodway

1. A channel for an overflow of water caused by flooding.

Word History and Origins

Origin of floodway¹

First recorded in 1885–90; flood + way ¹

Example Sentences

Fema's official flood maps show that some of Camp Mystic's cabins were within a "floodway", a particularly hazardous area where dangerous floodwaters would be expected to flow, the New York Times reported.

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In the predawn blackness, the Guadalupe River, which drains from the Hill Country, rose by more than 26 vertical feet in just 45 minutes, jumping its banks and hurtling downstream, killing 109 people, including at least 27 children at a summer camp located inside a federally designated floodway.

Read more on Salon

He said, judging from the maps, it appears that a number of cabins at the summer camp were within a federally designated “floodway” and were at high risk.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

She became an activist for the devastated Broadmoor neighborhood, helping scuttle early plans to raze what was left there and turn the area into a park and floodway.

Read more on Seattle Times

River Partners played a key role in creating the Dos Rios Ranch Preserve, a 2,100-acre floodway expansion near the confluence of the San Joaquin and Tuolumne rivers.

Read more on New York Times