A national register of damage and losses associated with flash floods and debris flows after wildfire

This data release is a compilation of damage and losses stemming from historical accounts of postfire flash flood and debris-flow activity in the United States. The register spans 147 years (1879–2025) and 12 states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming). We compiled this information from hundreds of sources, including existing databases, scientific journal articles, professional reports, newspaper articles, written correspondence, and oral communication. The register incorporates data field types from the National Landslide Damages and Losses database (Palermo and others, 2025) and introduces data field types that are relevant to postfire flash floods and debris flows.
 
The comma-delimited tabular dataset (“US_PFDF_DL_v1.csv”) is machine readable, but we have also included an Excel file (“US_PFDF_DL_v1.xlsx”), for added convenience. A “README.txt” file and “README.pdf” file describe all of the data fields associated with the tabular information. Fields with “NR” (Not Reported) or “-9999” indicate that the data are not available or do not exist. The citations associated with the “Sources” field are reported in the “References.txt” file and the “References.pdf” file. An explanation of the methodology is available in the “ProcessSteps.txt” file and the “ProcessSteps.pdf” file.
 
We greatly appreciate conversations with the following individuals, who provided helpful input that facilitated the development this dataset: Chad Kwiatkowski (Arizona Geological Survey), Ann Youberg (Arizona Geological Survey), Brian Hooker (California Department of Transportation), Christopher Woodward (California Department of Transportation), Paul Burgess (California Geological Survey), Donald Lindsay (California Geological Survey), Nina Oakley (California Geological Survey), Brian Swanson (California Geological Survey), James Guilinger (California State University Monterey Bay), Christopher Sturm (Colorado Water Conservation Board), Kate Legg (Denver Water), William Burns (Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries), Joeseph Loverich (JE Fuller Hydrology and Geomorphology, Inc.), Catrin Edgeley (Northern Arizona University), Maurice Goodall (Okanogan County Emergency Management), Michael Zimmerman (Oregon Department of Transportation), Katherine Rowden (US Army Corps of Engineers), David Callery (US Department of Agriculture), John Derbish (US Department of Agriculture), Samuel Mariano (US Department of Agriculture), Jonathan Schwartz (US Department of Agriculture), Cara Sponaugle (US Department of Agriculture), Clinton Whitten (US Department of Agriculture), Brendan Waterman (US Department of Agriculture), Katy Barnhart (US Geological Survey), Eric Bilderback (US Geological Survey), Amy East (US Geological Survey), Alex Gorr (US Geological Survey), Andrew Graber (US Geological Survey), Jason Kean (US Geological Survey), Lauren Palermo (US Geological Survey), Francis Rengers (US Geological Survey), Stephen Slaughter (US Geological Survey), Anne Tillery (US Geological Survey), Audrey Miles-Cherney (Upper South Platte Partnership), Benjamin Erickson (Utah Geological Survey), Richard Giraud (Utah Geological Survey, retired), Nancy Calhoun (Washington Geological Survey), Kate Mickelson (Washington Geological Survey), Emilie Richard (Washington Geological Survey), Cora Siebert (Washington Geological Survey), and James Mauch (Wyoming State Geological Survey).
 
Reference:
Palermo, L.K., Martinez, S.N., Hearne, M., and Mirus, B.B., 2025, National Landslide Damages and Losses: US Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P13HBHDS.