Floods
When the water rose — river floods, flash floods, dam failures and monsoon deluges that swallowed whole regions.
Part of Natural Disasters
83 moments in this segment.
- — The St. Lucia's flood. A storm surge broke the dikes of the Zuiderzee in 1287, drowning tens of thousands in the Low Countries.
- — The 1332 Yellow River flood. A catastrophic Yellow River flood and the famine and plague that followed killed millions in 14th-century China.
- — The 1333 flood of Florence. A great flood of the Arno devastated medieval Florence in 1333, recorded by the chronicler Giovanni Villani.
- — The St. Elizabeth's Flood. A storm surge burst the dikes of Holland in 1421, drowning villages and creating a vast inland sea.
- — The St. Felix's Flood, 1530. A storm surge drowned much of the Dutch province of Zeeland on 'Evil Saturday', killing over 100,000.
- — The floods of the Tiber. For centuries the Tiber flooded Rome each winter, its high-water marks still carved on the city's walls.
- — The Burchardi Flood, 1634. A North Sea storm surge tore apart the coast of North Frisia in Germany and Denmark, killing about 15,000.
- — The Great Sheffield Flood. The failure of the Dale Dyke Dam sent a wall of water through Sheffield, England, killing about 240.
- — The 1887 Yellow River flood. The Yellow River burst its banks in Henan, China, one of the deadliest floods ever, killing up to 2 million.
- — The 1889 Johnstown Flood. The South Fork Dam failed above Johnstown, Pennsylvania, sending a 20-metre wall of water that killed 2,209.
- — The Great Flood of Paris. The Seine burst its banks in 1910, submerging Paris streets for weeks in the city's worst modern flood.
- — The 1927 Great Mississippi Flood. The most destructive river flood in U.S. history inundated 70,000 square km and displaced 630,000.
- — The Kathleen Typhoon floods. Typhoon Kathleen's floods devastated the Kanto plain around Tokyo in 1947.
- — The 1951 Polesine flood. The Po River burst its banks in 1951, flooding the Polesine region of northern Italy and displacing 180,000.
- — The Lynmouth flood. A flash flood roared down the East and West Lyn rivers into the Devon village of Lynmouth, killing 34.
- — The 1967 Lisbon floods. Flash floods killed hundreds around Lisbon, Portugal, in a single night in 1967, a long-hidden disaster.
- — The 1971 Red River flood. The Red River delta flood of 1971 is considered one of the worst of the 20th century in Vietnam.
- — The Teton Dam failure. Idaho's brand-new Teton Dam collapsed as it filled, filmed as the flood swept downstream.
- — The 1930 Midi floods. Catastrophic floods struck the Tarn and Garonne valleys of southern France in 1930, killing hundreds.
- — The 1993 Great Flood. Months of flooding along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers submerged much of the American Midwest.
- — The 2004 South Asia floods. Monsoon floods across Bangladesh, India and Nepal submerged vast regions and displaced millions.
- — The Boscastle flash flood. A flash flood tore through the Cornish village of Boscastle in England in 2004, swept cars into the harbour.
- — The 2005 Mumbai floods. Nearly a metre of rain fell on Mumbai in a day in 2005, paralysing the megacity.
- — The flooding of New Orleans. When Katrina's surge broke the levees, 80% of New Orleans flooded, trapping thousands on rooftops.
- — The 2007 UK floods. Summer downpours flooded large parts of England in 2007, submerging Gloucestershire and Yorkshire.
- — Typhoon Ketsana floods Manila. Typhoon Ketsana dumped a month's rain on Manila in hours in 2009, submerging the Philippine capital.
- — The 2009 Cumbria floods. Record rainfall flooded Cockermouth and Workington in England's Lake District.
- — The 2010 Nashville flood. Record rain flooded Nashville, Tennessee, submerging the Grand Ole Opry and downtown.
- — The 2010 Pakistan floods. Monsoon floods put a fifth of Pakistan underwater, affecting 20 million people.
- — The 2011 Queensland floods. An 'inland tsunami' of floodwater tore through Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley, then swamped Brisbane.
- — The 2011 Rio de Janeiro floods. Floods and mudslides in the mountains above Rio killed over 900, Brazil's worst weather disaster to that point.
- — The 2011 Seoul floods. Record rain triggered floods and landslides across Seoul, South Korea, in 2011.
- — The 2011 Thailand floods. Months of monsoon flooding inundated much of Thailand including Bangkok, killing over 800 and disrupting global electronics supply chains.
- — The 2002 Central European floods. Record floods on the Elbe and Danube inundated Prague, Dresden and much of Central Europe in 2002.
- — The 2013 North India floods. Cloudbursts and flash floods devastated the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, killing over 5,000 pilgrims and locals.
- — The 2013 Colorado floods. A week of rain caused catastrophic flooding along Colorado's Front Range around Boulder.
- — The 1998 Yangtze floods. Months of flooding along the Yangtze River affected 240 million people in China and killed over 3,000.
- — The 2013 Sardinia floods. Cyclone Cleopatra caused deadly flash floods across the Italian island of Sardinia in 2013.
- — The 2014 Balkan floods. Record rain flooded Bosnia and Serbia, triggering landslides that disturbed old war minefields.
- — The Ourika Valley flood. A flash flood tore through Morocco's Ourika Valley in 1995, sweeping away tourists and villages.
- — The 2015 Chennai floods. The worst floods in a century submerged the Indian city of Chennai in 2015.
- — Glacial lake outburst floods. As Himalayan glaciers melt, the lakes they leave behind can burst without warning, sending floods down the valleys.
- — The 1953 North Sea flood. A storm surge broke the sea defences of the Netherlands and eastern England, drowning over 2,500 and prompting the Dutch Delta Works.
- — The 2001 Bab El Oued flood. A flash flood and mudslides devastated the Bab El Oued district of Algiers in 2001, killing over 700.
- — The 2018 western Japan floods. Record rain caused floods and landslides across western Japan in 2018, killing over 200.
- — The 2018 Kerala floods. The worst floods in a century hit the Indian state of Kerala, killing over 480 and displacing a million.
- — The 2020 Jakarta floods. New Year floods submerged much of Jakarta, Indonesia, one of the world's fastest-sinking cities.
- — The 2020 China floods. Months of flooding along the Yangtze tested the Three Gorges Dam and displaced millions.
- — The 1988 Bangladesh floods. Monsoon floods submerged three-quarters of Bangladesh, leaving tens of millions homeless.
- — The 2020 Sahel and Sudan floods. Record Nile and Sahel rains flooded Sudan, Niger and Nigeria in 2020, displacing hundreds of thousands.
- — The 2021 European floods. Extreme rainfall sent catastrophic flash floods through Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, killing over 240.
- — The 2021 European floods. Catastrophic flash floods swept through Germany's Ahr valley and Belgium, killing over 220.
- — The 2021 Henan floods. A year's rain fell in days on Zhengzhou, China, flooding a subway line and killing over 300.
- — The 2021 Waverly flash flood. A record cloudburst sent a flash flood through Waverly, Tennessee, killing 20.
- — The Rapid City flood. A flash flood tore through Rapid City, South Dakota, killing 238 after a dam failed.
- — The 2022 KwaZulu-Natal floods. Record rain caused catastrophic floods and landslides around Durban, South Africa, in 2022.
- — The 2022 Kentucky floods. Flash floods tore through the hollows of eastern Kentucky in 2022, killing dozens in Appalachia.
- — The 2022 Pakistan floods. Record monsoon rains and glacial melt put a third of Pakistan underwater, killing over 1,700 and displacing 33 million.
- — The 1976 Big Thompson flash flood. A flash flood roared down a Colorado canyon packed with holiday-makers, killing 144.
- — The 2022 Nigeria floods. The worst floods in a decade submerged much of Nigeria, killing over 600 and displacing 1.4 million.
- — The Malpasset Dam disaster. France's Malpasset Dam burst in 1959, sending a wave through Fréjus that killed over 400.
- — The 2023 Auckland floods. Auckland's wettest day on record flooded New Zealand's largest city in January 2023.
- — The 1931 China floods. The Yangtze and Huai river floods of 1931 killed an estimated 1-4 million people — likely the deadliest natural disaster in recorded history.
- — The 1903 Heppner flash flood. A flash flood roared down a canyon into Heppner, Oregon, killing about 250 in minutes.
- — The 2023 Slovenia floods. Slovenia's worst floods in a century inundated much of the country in August 2023.
- — Storm Daniel floods Greece. Before it burst Libya's dams, Storm Daniel dropped record rain on Thessaly, Greece, in 2023.
- — The 2023 Hong Kong deluge. Hong Kong's heaviest rain since records began in 1884 turned streets and metro stations into rivers in 2023.
- — The 2023 Derna dam flood. Storm Daniel burst two dams above Derna, Libya, sending a flood that swept a quarter of the city into the sea, killing over 11,000.
- — The 1954 Yangtze floods. The 1954 Yangtze River floods were among the worst of the century, killing over 30,000 in China.
- — The 2024 East Africa floods. Heavy rains and flooding devastated Kenya, Tanzania and the region, killing hundreds.
- — The 2024 Dubai floods. A year's rain fell in a day on the UAE, flooding Dubai's malls, roads and airport in a desert deluge.
- — The 2024 Rio Grande do Sul floods. Catastrophic floods submerged Porto Alegre and much of southern Brazil in the state's worst disaster.
- — The Banqiao Dam failure. A typhoon caused China's Banqiao and other dams to fail in a cascade, killing an estimated 170,000.
- — The 2024 Maiduguri flood. A dam collapse flooded Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria in 2024, displacing over a million people.
- — The 2024 Valencia floods. A year's rain fell in hours over eastern Spain, sending flash floods through Valencia that killed over 220 — Spain's deadliest flood in decades.
- — The recurring Brazil deluges. Southern and southeastern Brazil now flood catastrophically almost every year as rainfall intensifies.
- — The St. Francis Dam disaster. The collapse of the St. Francis Dam sent a flood down to the sea in California, killing over 400 and ending an engineer's career.
- — The 1966 flood of Florence. The Arno River flooded Florence, Italy, drowning the city and damaging priceless Renaissance art and books.
- — The 1642 Kaifeng flood. Defenders deliberately breached the Yellow River's dikes to stop an army, drowning the city of Kaifeng.
- — The 2000 Mozambique floods. Cyclone-driven floods submerged much of Mozambique; a woman famously gave birth in a tree awaiting rescue.
- — The 1938 Yellow River flood. Chinese forces deliberately breached the Yellow River dikes to slow the Japanese advance, killing up to 800,000.
- — The 1957 Valencia flood. The Turia river flooded Valencia, Spain, in 1957, leading the city to divert the river around itself.
- — The 1998 Bangladesh floods. Monsoon floods submerged two-thirds of Bangladesh for months, displacing 30 million people.
