#1 – Central China Floods of 1931
Year: 1931
Location: China
Death Toll: Up to 4 million people
The largest natural disaster in modern history occurred in 1931 with the flooding of the Yangtze and Huai river in central China. Estimates of the total death toll range between 3.7 million and 4 million people.
According to many accounts, abnormal weather over central China began in the winter of late 1930. Heavy snowstorms in the winter were followed by a spring thaw and heavy rains that raised river levels significantly. Heavy rain later in the summer and an unusually high number of cyclones hit the region.
The worst period of flooding was from July to August and the Yangtze and Huai river floods soon reached Nanjing, the capital of China at the time. The city, located on an island in a massive flood zone, suffered catastrophic damage. Millions died of drowning while some died from starvation or from waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhus.
On the evening of 25 August 1931, the water rushing through the Grand Canal washed away dikes near Gaoyou Lake. Some 200,000 people drowned in their sleep in the resulting deluge. The Central China Floods of 1931 were a horrific natural disaster of gigantic proportions.