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

The new version was expected to put hundreds of homes on Livingston’s southeast side, a historic area near the river, in what is known as the floodway, the principal path of floodwaters.

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Some areas on the east side of the city that had been removed from the floodway were inundated.

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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