[OldDominion]

The olive branch part of the story is specifically there to show the flood was not universal.

I am assuming you trust the words of Jesus when He stated, (Luke 17:26-27) "Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all." (NIV)

Surely you must see that a local flood could not "kill them all" if it was local in nature? Right? Certainly a local flood could not cover the highest mountains. Correct?

[Junior]

Assuming for the moment that the Noah story is factual as written (and I am not going to say it is, as there is far too much evidence against its being so), the population of the Earth would have been small and living relatively close to one another (after all, why should humanity have spread itself thin?). A relatively small flood could have done the dirty deed and still not have been universal. It would go far toward explaining the relative smallness of the Ark in regards to the number of species on the planet and the geographical distribution of some of those species (three-toed sloths, anyone?).