Ten Worst Floods In Human History Generally leading to many ripple effects after the initial event.

North Sea Flood, Netherlands – 1212 This flood started off in June, 1212 in Netherlands (Now Holland) and it ended after 6 months (including relocation and cleanup activities). It started off with a slight drizzle and ended up creating havoc. It took about 60,000 lives along with it. It caused irreparable loss to life and property. It even affected the far off English Coast.  People were dislocated, buildings collapsed, roads got uprooted and property being carried away by the flood water. The citizens of Netherlands had lost faith on life after this debacle. Faith had to re-entrusted, the cities had to be rebuilt after this incident. This process took more than 2 years to happen.

St. Lucia’s Flood, Netherlands – 1287 St. Lucia’s flood affected Netherlands and North Germany on December 12, 1287.  A ‘storm tide’ was responsible for this disaster which took away lives of around 70,000 innocent people.. Some locations got completely submerged eliminating human life completely (at those places). This storm is referred to as ‘Great storm’ and flood referred to as St Lucia Flood. A significant percentage of the country’s population came down after this incident. The property loss included destruction of cities of Winchelsea and Broomhill. A cliff at Hastings collapsed as a result of the flood.  The only positive of this flood was it bought in direct sea access to the village of Amsterdam because all the other villages in between were destroyed and this lead to the development of Amsterdam into a major and highly developed City.

Yangtze River Flood, China – 1911 This flood killed around 100,000 people. The cities surrounding this river are densely populated. This fact made the 1911 flood more dreadful and costly. This flood made hundreds of thousands homeless and led to catstrophic property loss. China’s annual GDP had a decline due to this catastrophe. This calamity resulted in the River extending its borders up to 80 miles (was initially 35 miles).

Hanoi and Red River Delta Flood, North Vietnam – 1971 The Red River Delta flood affected North Vietnam on 1st Aug, 1971 and killed more than 100,000 people. The fact that this calamity took place during a war – Vietnam War doubled its effect. Heavy rains hit the city of Hanoi continuously and intensely. The heavily populated Hanoi is not much far above sea level. These reasons magnified the effect of the flood killing millions of people, wiping out valuable crops, carrying away the essentials and homes of people who were already facing severe hardship due to the war. The fact that the river had little tributaries added to the devastation. This flood made people realize that a superpower named ‘God’ existed who was above all the countries and people. This realization made ‘people’ to call off the ‘ongoing’ war.

St. Felix’s Flood, Netherlands -1530 The 1530 St. Felix Flood happened on November 5, 1530. This day came to be known as Evil Saturday’ later..  Eighteen villages were washed away and people considered this as a ‘Godly’ thing, washing away evil. This city was left as an Island and today, it has completely turned into a salt marsh area. More than 120,000 people were killed. This flood was again due to a ‘surge’ and lead to the reduction of Netherlands total area (submerging)

Yangtze River Flood, China – 1935 The Yangtze River Flood, 1935 was one of the major disasters that China has ever experienced. It is biggest incident to happen across the River Yangtze. It happened at a time when there was turmoil, chaos and ‘disaster’ spread throughout the world. It killed around 145,000 people, injured a few millions and left lots of people dislocated. The after-effects of this catastrophe were so dreadful that the people who survived this disaster eventually died due to no/little food of the spread of disease, including. Conjunctivitis, Dermatitis, Malaria, Tuberculosis (no cure).  The corpses also lead to several contagious dangerous diseases. A few of those committed suicides not able to find jobs, feeling the pressure of carrying a family forward.

Banqiao Dam Failure, China – 1975 The Banqiao dam is built across the river ‘Ru’ in Zhumadian city. It is a huge structure built in 1949. It occurred in August, 1975, as a result of the collision between SuperTyphoon Nina and Cold front. More than a year’s rain fell in 24 hours which forecasts failed to predict. Communications to the dam were lost due to wiring failure. The surrounding cities got isolated from the rest of china. The breakdown of this dam lead to the breakdown of several other small dams, overflowing of several other water bodies. Around 160,000 people were killed and million people were struck under water for nine days. Army was deployed for rescue operations. Disaster management and rescue operations failed to reach all the people struck, hence the people starved to death. Epidemics killed the trapped survivors.

Yellow River Flood, China – 1938 The 1938 Yellow River flood was created by the ‘Chinese Government’ itself. The Second Sino-Japanese war was in progress and China was under tremendous pressure to halt the barging Japanese army. China took a decision to lift up the Yellow river gates to stop the Japanese army from moving further forward. It was a part of their war strategy. But the flood turned out to be larger than anticipated, and the Yellow river spread its borders and flood water submerged many cities, towns and villages. The Yellow river spread hundreds of miles towards the south. Thousands of Square Kilometers of Agricultural land were flooded, several villages were destroyed, a million people killed and several million villagers lost their homes and were forced to live as refugees. This inhumane act of the government would later lead to the formation of a citizen guerrilla group that fought with the Japanese against the Chinese government.

Yellow River Flood, China – 1887 The Yellow River Flood, 1887 happened on 28 September, 1887 and the disaster management, cleanup activities went on for the next eight months. It was a devastating flood and killed more than 900,000 peopleThe low lying areas were all submerged, destroying agricultural lands and commercial centers. More than 50,000 square Km of land got submerged, leaving 2 million people homeless. The resulting epidemic diseases and lack of essentials (food, clothing, and shelter) claimed many lives and this doubled the corpse number. It is recorded as one of the world’s deadliest natural calamity ever.

China Floods, China – 1931 The 1931 China floods or the Central China Floods are considered the most devastating among all other disasters in the world. It included a series of bloods back to back resulting in a death count of around 4 million people.. This flood affected around 25 million people on a whole in some way or the other. The Yangtze and Huai rivers, both major rivers of China flooded at once leading to this catastrophe. It started in August, 1931 when the Yangtze River’s height raised after continuous three day rain. On 19th August, 1931, Huai River’s water height exceeded the maximum limit and drowned around 200,000 who were in their sleep. Millions died due to water borne diseases (Cholera, Typhoid), cases of infanticide and cannibalism were reported.