Van Bavel added, "This global trend was a tsunami that swamped ideology, gender, race, age, etc."

In the pandemic we heard reports of swamped hospitals in danger of being overwhelmed though to what extent was never fully clear.

An abrupt silence swamped the courtroom in Avignon as three large television screens, positioned high on three walls, flickered back to life.

Asheville, home to about 94,000 people and a popular tourism and arts hub, was swamped and eerily quiet on Saturday, CBS reported.

Welfare agencies were swamped with requests for emergency cash assistance and food stamp applications while the municipal civil service was hit with illness, death and a wave of early retirements.