The largest flood in the world occurred in 1931 in China. The total number of deaths is more than 4 million. The background to this terrible event is associated with unfavorable weather conditions that arose in the period from 1928 to 1930. In the winter of 1930, strong snowstorms began, and in the spring there were heavy torrential rains and a sharp thaw. In this regard, there was a sharp rise in water levels in the Yangtze and Huaihe rivers. The water level in the Yangtze River rose by 70 centimeters in July.
This led to the river quickly overflowing its banks and reaching the capital of China, the city of Nanjing. Water acted as a carrier of numerous diseases: typhoid, cholera and others. Therefore, many people died as a result of infectious diseases, others drowned. Fixed real cases cannibalism and infanticide among residents who had lost hope of salvation and fell into deep despair. Chinese sources indicate that the world's worst flood claimed the lives of 145 thousand people, while Western sources claim that the death toll is 4 million.
How events happened
In 1931, tropical downpours and prolonged torrential rains hit the Chinese provinces. As a result of the large volume of water, numerous dams were unable to cope with the huge flows. Barrier structures were simultaneously destroyed in different places. At the same time, increased activity of cyclones was observed, since there were about 7 of them in July. Given that the climate norm is 2 times a year.
The peak point of this large-scale disaster was a strong typhoon that hit one of the largest lakes in China, Gaoyou, which is located in Jiangsu province. During this period of time, the water level was at an extremely high level due to numerous rains.
The strongest wind raised high waves that crashed against various structures and dams. After midnight, a very large gap appeared, which reached 700 meters. Almost all the dams were destroyed, so the stormy stream quickly rushed into the city and destroyed everything that came in its way. About 10 thousand people died overnight.
In 1931, there was a flood that paralyzed life in northern China. The water did not leave some places for up to 6 months. People did not have enough food, typhoid and cholera epidemics broke out in the city, and there was no roof over their heads. The government at that time was concentrated by the war between the Nationalists and Communists, as well as Japanese intervention in the north. Foreign citizens and rescue missions provided assistance to the injured people. The famous pilot Charles Lindbergh and his wife received Active participation in the delivery of medicines and food. Also, Lindbergh made his flights with a Chinese doctor who provided medical care to the victims.
How it ended
With the help of two million people, China managed to cope with the disaster and its consequences. People restored the dams and infrastructure of the city. However, China faced several more major floods that destroyed the constructed dams. In 1938, there was a deliberate explosion of structures that contained the Yellow River. This made it possible to stop the advance of enemy armies during the Second World War. A huge area was flooded, resulting in the death of hundreds of thousands of people.
A flood of this magnitude was not the only one in Chinese history, as the Yangtze overflowed its banks in 1911, when the death toll was 100,000. In 1935, there was a massive flood that killed 142 thousand people, and in 1954, about 30 thousand people died as a result of a natural disaster. The last time there was a flood was in 1998, when the death toll was 3,656.
During this terrible natural disaster, 330 thousand hectares of land were flooded, and 40 million people lost their homes. The harvest across a vast area was completely destroyed, and a total of 3 million people died from disease and starvation. That is why this flood is one of the largest natural disasters in the history of mankind.
You should be aware that such natural phenomena, which were caused by rising waters, were not uncommon in China. Monsoon rains during the summer season contributed to the disaster. In summer, winds from outside Pacific Ocean bring moist air, the accumulation of which leads to heavy rain.
In the past, floods were caused by the formation of ice dams in the upper reaches of the river. Currently, ice dams are being destroyed by bombing from aircraft. This is done well before they become dangerous. Thanks to the construction of irrigation structures in the 20th century, the threat of floods in the Huaihe River basin has been minimized.
Also, the construction of a special dam called the “Three Gorges” helped solve the problem of recurring floods. The structure was commissioned in 2012 and is one of the largest hydraulic structures in the world. The hydroelectric power plant is designed to protect land in the lower reaches of the Yantsy River, the spills of which have had catastrophic consequences and caused the death of several thousand people.
In December 2003, a memorial museum was erected in Gaoyou City to commemorate the people who were seriously affected by the 1931 flood.
Details in the story: “Flood in the Czech Republic” >>
1. The flood that hit the North Sea countries in February 1953 led to the inundation of the coasts of Denmark, Norway, Germany, Belgium and the UK. The disaster dealt the main blow to the Netherlands: due to heavy winds and storm waves, the dams holding back the pressure failed sea waters- gushing water instantly demolished more than 130 settlements. During the rampant water disaster, Dutch rescuers evacuated about 72,000 people, 3,000 houses were completely destroyed. The flood victims are believed to be 2,400 people.
2. In 1959, a major flood occurred in France. After prolonged rains, the Malpasse dam could not withstand the flow of water destructive force rushed down the Reyran River, “covering” the city of Frejus and nearby settlements. As a result, the “big water” claimed the lives of more than 400 people, and the flood itself became a real national tragedy for France.
3. One of the largest floods in Germany occurred in February 1962. Then the storm waves of the North Sea flooded most coastline countries. In the first hours of the flood, the water level in the Elbe River increased greatly, which flooded the river delta. german city Hamburg. Significant damage was also caused to the city of Bremen, and the island of Krautsand was isolated from the island for several days. outside world. In total, about 300 people died, more than 500 thousand people were left homeless.
4. In 1966, the waters of the Italian rivers Po, Arno and Adige, after prolonged rains, rose significantly and fell on the populated areas of central Italy, demolishing fortified dams. As a result, more than 100 people died, damage agriculture the country was estimated at several million lire (Italian currency before the introduction of the single European currency). The water caused especially great damage to the city of Florence and its residents. In particular, the National central Library Florence (one of the largest libraries in Italy) - more than 3 million copies of rare books and 14 thousand other works of art were damaged.
5. In the autumn of 2000, a cyclone came to Europe, which provoked prolonged heavy rains. As a result, severe floods began in Sweden, Switzerland, Hungary, Austria, France, Norway, eastern Spain and northern Italy. A state of emergency was declared in some Italian provinces, and about 43 thousand people were evacuated. Major Italian cities such as Turin and Milan were flooded. 30 people drowned, total damage to Italy amounted to $800 million. In the mountainous regions of Switzerland, rains caused large landslides and landslides. In total, material damage from the disaster in France, Switzerland and Spain amounted to more than $10 million.
History remembers several of the most terrible floods; such natural disasters also occurred in Russia, including in St. Petersburg. Several devastating floods occurred in the 20th century.
The worst floods in history
In historical chronicles you can read about many severe floods that claimed several hundred thousand human lives. Because natural disasters like these happen unexpectedly, people are left unprepared for them.Some floods occur due to river overflows, dam failures, incessant rainfall, ocean earthquakes and tsunamis. We know about floods that were deliberately caused by people.
Flood of St. Mary Magdalene
One of the most destructive floods occurred in 1342. It is considered the largest in Central Europe. Several rivers overflowed their banks at once: the Rhine, Weser, Main, Moselle, Werra, Elbe, etc. Having flooded the surrounding lands, the water harmed such large European cities as Cologne, Passau, Vienna, Regensburg, Frankfurt am Main.The reason was heavy rains that had been falling for several days. The exact number of those who drowned is unknown; we can say that there were several thousand people. This natural disaster was called the St. Mary Magdalene Flood.
Burchardi flood
More than eight thousand people were killed by a flood that occurred in 1634 in Denmark and Germany. Due to hurricane winds, a storm surge of water began, leading to a dam failure in several places along the North Sea coast. 
The communities of North Frisia and many coastal towns were flooded. This flood is called the Burchardi flood.
Floods on the Yellow River
As you know, the Yellow River is one of the most capricious rivers in China. It is famous for frequent floods, and more than once its waters have claimed many human lives. The largest Yellow River spills occurred in 1887 and 1938. 
In 1887, after prolonged rains, multiple dam breaks occurred. Due to the flooding, almost two million people lost their homes and nine hundred thousand people died. In 1938, the flood was provoked by the Nationalist government, thus wanting to stop the advance of Japanese troops into China. Many villages and thousands of hectares of agricultural land were destroyed, almost five hundred thousand people drowned, and millions became refugees.
The worst floods of the 20th century
In the 20th century, unfortunately, there were also floods. One of them happened in China in 1931 on a river called the Yangtze. It is estimated that about four million people died. This flood is considered the most severe after the Great Flood. Four million houses were demolished, three hundred thousand square kilometers were covered in water.In 1970 severe flood occurred in the Ganges delta in India. It claimed the lives of five hundred thousand people. It was caused by the waters of the Kosi River and heavy monsoon rains. Having broken the dam, the waters of the Kosi changed their course and flooded a huge region that had never before been subject to flooding.
In 1927, a flood called the “Great” occurred in America. The waters of the Mississippi overflowed their banks due to heavy rains. Flooding affected the territory of ten states, reaching ten meters in depth in some places. In order to avoid flooding New Orleans, it was decided to blow up a dam near the city. As a result, other areas were flooded. About five hundred thousand people died.
At the end of April 1991, the devastating cyclone Marian raised a nine-meter wave off the coast of Bangladesh. The flood resulted in the death of one hundred and forty thousand people. The lands flooded with salt water became unsuitable for agriculture for many years.
Floods in St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg suffered from floods quite often. The city was flooded at least three hundred and thirty times. In different areas you can see memorial plaques on houses showing the water level. There are about twenty such tablets.In 1691, even before the founding of St. Petersburg, when the territory of the city was under the Swedes, it was also flooded by the waters of the Neva. This is evidenced by Swedish chronicles, according to which the water level in the river rose to seven hundred and sixty-two centimeters.
The worst flood occurred in 1824. According to various estimates, from two hundred to six hundred thousand citizens died as a result. It is known that the water level in the Neva has risen by more than four meters. Many houses were destroyed and flooded. Before the flood, heavy rain began, followed by a sharp rise in water.
The worst flood in the world - the Great Flood: myth or reality
Not only the Bible tells about the Great Flood; many peoples living in almost all parts of the planet have similar descriptions of the terrible flood. You can read about the flood in the myths of the Indians of California, it is described in ancient Mexican manuscripts, and the myths of the Canadian Indians. It is known about the Japanese “variant” of the flood. Quite rarely, it is reported by manuscripts found in the interior regions of Africa and Asia, which are located at a considerable distance from the oceans and seas. 
We can conclude that many legends about the flood are associated with certain local phenomena that led to a sharp rise in water levels. Scientists have expressed several versions of the occurrence of a powerful flood. Most likely, the so-called Great Flood occurred in different parts of the Earth, was different in each region and had its own causes on different continents.
Floods also bring with them giant waves. .
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The summer of 2017 turned out to be unusually rainy. Fortunately, this year's heavy rainfall is a far cry from the devastating floods that occurred in Germany and China several centuries ago.
1. St. Petersburg flood, 1824, about 200-600 dead. On November 19, 1824, a flood occurred in St. Petersburg, which killed hundreds of people and destroyed many houses. Then the water level in the Neva River and its canals rose 4.14 - 4.21 meters above the normal level (ordinary).
St. Petersburg flood of 1824. Author of the painting: Fyodor Yakovlevich Alekseev (1753-1824).
Before the flood began, it rained and blew damp and cold wind. And in the evening there was a sharp rise in the water level in the canals, after which almost the entire city was flooded. The flood did not affect only the Liteinaya, Rozhdestvenskaya and Karetnaya parts of St. Petersburg. As a result, material damage from the flood amounted to about 15-20 million rubles, and about 200-600 people died. One way or another, this is not the only flood that occurred in St. Petersburg. In total, the city on the Neva was flooded more than 330 times. In memory of many floods in the city, memorial plaques have been installed (there are more than 20 of them). In particular, a sign is dedicated to the largest flood in the city, which is located at the intersection of the Kadetskaya Line and Bolshoy Prospekt of Vasilievsky Island.
Memorial plaque on the Raskolnikov House. Interestingly, before the founding of St. Petersburg, the largest flood in the Neva delta occurred in 1691, when this territory was under the control of the Kingdom of Sweden. This incident is mentioned in Swedish chronicles. According to some reports, that year the water level in the Neva reached 762 centimeters.
2.
Flood in China, 1931, about 145 thousand - 4 million dead. From 1928 to 1930, China suffered from severe drought. But at the end of the winter of 1930, strong snowstorms began, and in the spring there were incessant heavy rains and a thaw, which caused the water level in the Yangtze and Huaihe rivers to rise significantly. For example, in the Yangtze River the water rose by 70 cm in July alone.
As a result, the river overflowed its banks and soon reached the city of Nanjing, which was at that time the capital of China. Many people drowned and died from waterborne infectious diseases such as cholera and typhoid. There are known cases of cannibalism and infanticide among desperate residents.
Flood victims, August 1931.
According to Chinese sources, about 145 thousand people died as a result of the flood, while Western sources claim that the death toll was between 3.7 million and 4 million. By the way, this was not the only flood in China caused by the waters of the Yangtze River overflowing its banks. Floods also occurred in 1911 (about 100 thousand people died), in 1935 (about 142 thousand people died), in 1954 (about 30 thousand people died) and in 1998 (3,656 people died).
3. Flood on the Yellow River, 1887 and 1938, about 900 thousand and 500 thousand dead, respectively. In 1887, heavy rain fell for many days in Henan Province, and on September 28, rising water in the Yellow River broke the dams. Soon the water reached the city of Zhengzhou, located in this province, and then spread throughout northern China, covering approximately 130,000 km².
The floods left about two million people homeless in China and killed an estimated 900,000 people. And in 1938, a flood on the same river was caused by the Nationalist government in Central China at the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War. This was done in order to stop Japanese troops rapidly advancing into central China. The flood was subsequently called "the largest act of environmental warfare in history." Thus, in June 1938, the Japanese took control of the entire northern part of China, and on June 6 they captured Kaifeng, the capital of Henan Province, and threatened to capture Zhengzhou, which was located near the intersection of important railways Beijing-Guangzhou and Lianyungang-Xi'an. If Japanese army managed to do this, such large Chinese cities, like Wuhan and Xi'an. In order to prevent this, the Chinese government in Central China decided to open dams on the Yellow River near the city of Zhengzhou. Water flooded the provinces of Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu adjacent to the river.
Soldiers of the National Revolutionary Army during the flood on the Yellow River in 1938. The floods destroyed thousands of square kilometers of farmland and many villages. Several million people became refugees. According to initial data from China, about 800 thousand people drowned. However, today, researchers studying the archives of the disaster claim that many died less people– about 400 – 500 thousand.
Refugees who appeared after the 1983 flood.
Interestingly, the value of this Chinese government strategy has been questioned. Because according to some reports, Japanese troops at that time were far from the flooded areas. Although their advance on Zhengzhou was thwarted, the Japanese took Wuhan in October.
4. Flood of St. Felix, 1530, at least 100 thousand dead. On Saturday 5 November 1530, Saint Felix de Valois's day, most of Flanders, the historical region of the Netherlands, and the province of Zealand were washed away. Researchers believe that more than 100 thousand people died. Subsequently, the day when the disaster occurred began to be called Evil Saturday.
5. Burchardi flood, 1634, about 8-15 thousand dead. On the night of October 11–12, 1634, flooding occurred in Germany and Denmark as a result of a storm surge caused by hurricane winds. That night, dams broke in several places along the North Sea coast, flooding coastal towns and communities in North Friesland.
Painting depicting the Burchardi flood.
According to various estimates, from 8 to 15 thousand people died during the flood.
Maps of North Friesland in 1651 (left) and 1240 (right). Author of both maps: Johannes Mejer.
6. Flood of St. Mary Magdalene, 1342, several thousand. In July 1342, on the feast day of the Myrrh-Bearer Mary Magdalene (the Catholic and Lutheran churches celebrate it on July 22), the largest recorded flood in Central Europe occurred. On this day, the overflowing waters of the rivers Rhine, Moselle, Main, Danube, Weser, Werra, Unstrut, Elbe, Vltava and their tributaries flooded the surrounding lands. Many cities, such as Cologne, Mainz, Frankfurt am Main, Würzburg, Regensburg, Passau and Vienna, were seriously damaged.
According to researchers of this disaster, a long hot and dry period was followed by heavy rains that fell for several days in a row. As a result, about half of the average annual precipitation fell. And since the extremely dry soil could not quickly absorb such an amount of water, surface runoff flooded large areas of the territory. Many buildings were destroyed and thousands of people died. And although total number the number of deaths is unknown; it is believed that about 6 thousand people drowned in the Danube region alone. In addition, the summer of the following year was wet and cold, so the population was left without crops and suffered greatly from hunger. And on top of everything else, the plague pandemic that took place in the middle of the 14th century across Asia, Europe, North Africa and the island of Greenland (Black Death), reached its peak in 1348-1350, taking the lives of at least a third of the population of Central Europe.
Illustration of the Black Death, 1411.
Writers and movie directors scare us with threats from space - asteroids, alien attacks. However, all this seems unreal and distant. The same cannot be said about such a natural disaster as a flood. Especially during the rainy season, you begin to think about how much trouble water can cause. We cannot predict what future floods will bring - providence, alas, does not report to us. But we are able to tell about the pages of history that “sank” in the raging waters.
1287, Netherlands
The North Sea coast, which belonged to Holland, was flooded on St. Lucia's Day. Hundreds were underwater settlements, 50 thousand people were injured. Lake Zuiderzee became a bay and only in 1932, thanks to the construction of a dam, it returned to its original appearance.
The Yellow River flood brought enormous destruction to the northern provinces of China. Water destroyed 2 thousand settlements. It is difficult to name the exact number of deaths; according to various sources, this number is 1.2-7 million people.
This year, Johnstown, located in Pennsylvania in the Conemah River Valley, suffered from flooding. Heavy spring rains caused the South Fork Dam to fail. A flow of water at a speed of more than 60 km/h destroyed over 10 thousand buildings, taking with it more than 2 thousand human lives.
Another powerful flood occurred in America in 1927, this disaster affected 10 states. The Mississippi River and its tributaries overflowed their banks. In some places the flood level reached 10 meters. To save New Orleans, a dam near the city had to be blown up; on the one hand, this saved the city a little, but other territories suffered because of it. About 500 thousand people died. The flood is still called "the great".
The scale of this flood is considered colossal even today - the water “captured” an area of 300 thousand km2. About 140 thousand residents of the republic died, 4 million houses disappeared from the face of the earth.
Heavy rains that year continued non-stop for a week, the protective dams were destroyed, as a result of which Pisa and Florence were flooded. 11 thousand buildings were damaged, including both residential buildings and businesses. The water destroyed valuable cultural and historical objects that were kept in Florence: paintings, books.
Monsoon rains caused the Kosi River to overflow, the dam was destroyed, the river changed its course, and areas that had never experienced such disasters were damaged. Residents of the state of Bexar (about a million people) were cut off from the rest of the country, because... the roads were washed away. In total, about 1.5 million people were affected and half a million died.
Monsoon rains continued for three months, paralyzing the life of the entire country. Damage from the floods was estimated at $500 million. 10 thousand people died from the destructive power of the water, but another 100 thousand people fell ill due to infections, the spread of which was facilitated by the flood.
An underwater earthquake in the Indian Ocean generated a powerful tsunami. The coasts of Indonesia, South India, Sri Lanka and Thailand were affected. The death toll is 230 thousand people.
All disasters on Earth are directly related to environmental deterioration, and in order to prevent this, it is necessary to go to special collection points, which are then recycled.