Do floods happen before a hurricane strikes land?

Answer 1

It depends on how you define "strikes land." Landfall is defined as the point where the eye of a hurricane moves over land, but a hurricane is much bigger than its eye. So the storm bands of a hurricane can cause flooding even if the eye never hits land. However, flooding cannot occur before the bands come in. Even if there is no official landfall, an area can still be said to have been hit.