Top 10 Most Devastating Floods in History |
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| By Water Damage Team | ||||
Death Toll: 1,000,000 to 3,700,000 The Huang He river is prone to flooding due to the surrounding low plains. A high silt content in the river (which also gives the river its name, “yellow”) causes the river to gain volume, helping it to rise above the plains. Death tolls are often high because there are so many people in the surrounding area and no real way to escape. 2. Huang He (Yellow) River, China 1887 Death Toll: 900,000 to 2,000,000 For years, farmers living along the yellow river were building dikes to protect their land from the rising waters. During a bad 2 day storm, the waters rose too rapidly for them to contain, and their dikes were overpowered and lands flooded. At the time, it was one of the worst natural disasters ever recorded, and still is among the worst. 3. Huang He (Yellow) River, China 1938 Death Toll: 500,000 - 900,000 In 1938, Nationalist Chinese troops actually broke the levees themselves hoping to turn back advancing Japanese troops. Although it did work to some extent, the death toll was very high. 4. Huang He (Yellow) River, China 1642 Death Toll: 300,000 Chinese rebels along the city of Kaifeng and destroyed the dikes. The area lost roughly half of its residents, making it the 2nd largest loss of human life at the time. The city was abandoned after the flood until 1662. 5. Ru River, Banqiao Dam, China 1975 Death Toll: 230,000 Heavy rain caused by a typhoon caused the collapse of the Banquia Dam along with several others. The water accumulated was more than a years worth of normal rainfall. 6. Yangtze River, China 1931 Death Toll: 145,000 The Yangtze River is the longest river in Asia, and the third longest in the world. Unfortunately, it has such a tendency to flood they’ve had over 1,000 floods. The river is so large it receives water from both Northern and Southern flanks, contributing largely to its flooding. 7. The Netherlands and England 1099 Death Toll: 100,000 100,000 were killed when high tides and storms flooded the Thames and the Netherlands. 8. The Netherlands 1287 Death Toll: 50,000 The polder was flooded due to the failure of a seawall on the Zuider Zee, a complicated dam system protecting the surrounding areas. 9. The Neva River, Russia 1824 Death Toll: 10,000 Before the flood, there had been a very cold winter. Ice backed up the river for days, and water backed up behind the ice. When the natural ice dam broke, water flooded everywhere uniting canals and streets alike. 10. The Netherlands 1421 Death Toll: 10,000 Although the Zuider Zee had prevented many floods in the past, it would fail to stop some of the stronger storms. In 1421 another failure of a seawall on the Zuider Zee caused the flood. |
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