The World's Worst Floods

Floods can of course be caused by a multitude ofbanks leaving between 1-3 million people dead. In
reasons, but because of mankind's dependence onrecent years the Chinese government have tried to
water and our historical need to build our towns anddam the river to prevent future catastrophes but the
cities nears rivers, it makes us extremely vulnerable todamming has proved controversial and is not entirely
flooding.the most effective flood defence measure.
Whilst floods in the UK and across developed nationsBangladesh 1998
can be costly; causing untold damage and can result inNearly two thirds of the entire country was flooded
the loss of businesses and homes; flooding in theafter torrential rains in 1998. Whilst only a thousand
West very rarely causes mass loss of life.people lost their lives, the floods affected nearly 30
However, in some parts of the world, flooding can bemillion people and the topography of Bangladesh
catastrophic, and when they hit they can cause themeans that the risk of it happening again is ever
deaths of hundreds and thousands of people.present and little can be done to defend from flooding
Some of the worst floods in history have happened inin the future.
these parts of the world, and while in the UK, theCaracas, Venezuela 1999
worst ever recorded flooding happened at the end ofAt least 10,000 people lost their lives when torrential
the eleventh century - when the Thames flood killingrain caused mass flooding across the nation and
thousands of medieval Englanders - across the globehundreds of thousands where left homeless.
severe floods still cause catastrophic loss of life.Despite grand flood defence schemes and
Here are some of the worst floods of the last century:revolutionary flood defence measures like instant
Huang He (Yellow) River, China 1931sandbags, flooding is still one of the most dangerous
China's rivers have been responsible for some of thenatural disasters that can affect mankind.
worst flooding in history. In 1931 the Huang He burst its