Flooding
Flooding can come from many sources such as broken water main pipes, dams that fail due to the earthquake and earthquake-generated tsunamis. When an earthquake breaks a dam or levee along a river, the water from the river or the reservoir floods the area, damaging buildings and maybe sweeping away or drowning people. Small tsunamis, called seiches occur on lakes shaken by earthquakes and are usually just a few feet high. These small tsunamis are capable of destroying houses and uprooting trees. Also, earthquakes can alter the course of a river and can even cause it to flow in the opposite direction for a short time (this happened to the Mississippi River in the late 1800's).