What river has caused the most deaths by flooding?

The Yellow River (Huang He) in China is prone to a great deal of flooding. The 1887 Yellow River floods devastated the area, killing between 900,000-2,000,000 people. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters ever seen. For centuries, people living near this river had built dikes to contain the rising waters, caused by silt accumulation on the riverbed.

In 1887, the rising riverbed, coupled with heavy rain fall, overcame the dikes, causing a great flood. It was generally thought that the Yellow River broke through the dikes in Huayankou, near the city of Zhengzhou in Henan province. Owing to the low-lying plains in the area, the flood spread quickly throughout Northern China, covering an estimate 50,000 square miles, swamping agricultural settlements and commercial centers. After the flood, two million were left homeless. The resulting pandemic and lack of basic essentials directly claimed as many lives as the flood itself. But, in 1931, greater floods killed over 4 million.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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25 Comments

Kath Thomson

Ray Anderson, While the Yangtze River holds the record for the single deadliest flood event (the 1931 floods), the Yellow River is considered historically worse due to the frequency and scale of its floods over many centuries. Both rivers are associated with catastrophic flood events, but the Yellow River is often regarded as having caused more cumulative suffering throughout China's history.

Kath Thomson

Michael W. Strode, While the Yangtze River holds the record for the single deadliest flood event (the 1931 floods), the Yellow River is considered historically worse due to the frequency and scale of its floods over many centuries. Both rivers are associated with catastrophic flood events, but the Yellow River is often regarded as having caused more cumulative suffering throughout China's history.

Kath Thomson

ALADEAU, While the Yangtze River holds the record for the single deadliest flood event (the 1931 floods), the Yellow River is considered historically worse due to the frequency and scale of its floods over many centuries. Both rivers are associated with catastrophic flood events, but the Yellow River is often regarded as having caused more cumulative suffering throughout China's history.

JRW

Wanda Pelchat, they are separate rivers with the Yangtze further north. They are not interchangeable.

Mary Gini Fudge Chapman

Michael W. Strode, you got it right.

Stuart Harris

Wrong! Yet again!

Elsy O. Stromberg

Jacques Andre Sterk, What's incredible about it? I personally had no idea.

Elsy O. Stromberg

Stella Maris Rodriguez Guarino, What's easy about it?

Michael W. Strode

The Yangtze-Huai River flood of 1931 was one of the worst recorded floods. It may have killed as many as four million people. It is thought that at least three million people died. In Qing China, the Yellow River flood that started in September 1887 killed at least 930,000 people.

Ray Anderson

This question has no time specification and therefore does not (and cannot) take into account flooding of these rivers before records were kept, so the answer could be any of the options.

Brent Chambers

"Climate Change" fanatics should read history, to realise that climate is always changing, and is here to stay, just like weather

Julie Allen

ALADEAU, Huang He floods, (1887, 1931, 1938), series of devastating floods in China caused by the overflowing of the Huang He (Yellow River), the country’s second longest river. These three floods collectively killed millions and are considered to be the three deadliest floods in history and among the most destructive natural disasters ever recorded.

ALADEAU

Your answer is wronh. The yanse river killed 3.7 million in 1931.

Sean Philips

kwalkley, what an ignorant and insensitive comment! And, FYI, China was NOT a communist country in 1887 or 1931 - that didn’t happen until 1949 dumbass