Extensive development in river flood plains should be achieved in parallel with minimization of potential inundation risk of over-bank flooding. Flood risks of property damage and loss of life can be eliminated through accurate flow predictions and by proper application of mitigating measures such as flow regulation structures. This paper presents a comparison between experimental results and a 2-dimensional unsteady flow numerical model simulations of flood propagation in a compound meandering channel. The model is based on a finite volume discretization on a staggered grid with upwind scheme in flux is presented, it handles drying and wetting process for a flood plain, complex geometry and discontinuities, which are the main requirements for modeling compound channel flows. The main objective of this research is to advance the existing knowledge on flood flow phenomenon in compound channels through comparative studies of unsteady flow experiments and numerical simulations. Comparison between measured data and model simulations show generally good agreement.