From the website http://water.usgs.gov/waterwatch/, click on your state to select a gaging station on a local stream. Most pages show at what water level rivers will overflow their banks. That information is important for a number of reasons as many places in the mid-Atlantic region are already experiencing above-average flows. You can produce customized graphs and tables showing stream level for the past 1-31 days.

WaterWatch Home Page offers a starting point

Select an area of interest - I picked WA State

Clicking on a station reveals available graphs and reports

Additional resources show the entire basin of interest

The USGS operates a network of more than 8,000 stream gages throughout the country and provides this real-time information to the National Weather Service where it is used for flood forecasting as well as to notify emergency managers. Field personnel collect data, or the gages relay it through telephones or satellites to offices where it is processed automatically in near real time. In many cases, the data are available online within minutes.

For more information on USGS flood-related activities, please see: http://water.usgs.gov/osw/

USGS water resources district offices are located in each state. They can provide more detailed information on stream conditions and on the USGS response to local events: http://water.usgs.gov/district_chief.html

http://water.usgs.gov/waterwatch/