Examples of major floods Global disasters Examples of major floods

a. Flood legends Legends of floods can be found in folklore of diverse places like the Middle east, India, China, Australia, South Asia, and the Americas. The most famous is in Mesopotamia in Tigris- Euphrates river valley. The Mesopotamian flood was mentioned in an “the Epic of Gilgamesh”, that talks about the adventures of the hero king of Sumer

a- Flood legends It was mentioned in the poems of Pindar of ancient Greece. in India , Manu is warned by a fish about an upcoming flood, he builds a boat and saves himself. Yu the great of China dredged the land to provide outlets to the sea.

b. The great Mississippi flood of 1927 It was flowing several months of unusually heavy rain which caused the flood of the Mississippi, the river was over 80 miles wide in some locations. It was flowing with the force of Niagara Falls. It caused the death of over 200 people and property damage

c. North Sea flood of 1953 North Sea storm and high tide struck the coast of England and Netherland which caused the worst flood in northern Europe over the past two centuries. Lives were lost and the loss of livestock , the loss was the worst since the second world war.

d. The Big Thompson flood of 1976 During the high touristic season, people were hiking, fishing and relaxing in their campsite in Big Thompson Canyon, eight inches of rain fell in one hour. The water in the river rose quickly, the weight of the charged water was so heavy that it sent huge rocks with it downstream. Residents didn’t know so the flood caused at least 139 deaths and a lot of property damage.

e. Hurricane Katerina 2005 It was one of the strongest storms of the United States during the last 100 years. The hurricane destroyed the levees and floodwalls in the Mississippi area causing 80% of new Orleans to be flooded, more than 1500 deaths, the disruption to the oil industry, and many people lost power .