The worst floods in history. The worst floods in human history

On September 23, 1924, one of the largest floods in the history of the city occurred in Leningrad. Then the water in the river rose almost 4 meters. Diletan. media recalled other cases of large-scale floods in the history of Russia.

1824

Even before the founding of St. Petersburg in 1691, a major flood occurred in the Neva delta. At that time, this territory was under the control of the Kingdom of Sweden. According to some reports, that year the water level in the Neva reached 762 cm. Since 1703, when the city was founded, more than 300 floods have been recorded (water rise of more than 160 cm), of which 210 with a rise of more than 210 cm. The largest one occurred in November 1824. Then the water level in the Neva and its canals rose more than 4 meters above the normal level (ordinary). According to various sources, from 200 to 600 people died. Material damage amounted to about 15-20 million rubles.

St. Petersburg flood of 1824, F. Ya. Alekseev

1908

One of the largest floods in Moscow occurred in April 1908. The water in the Moscow River rose by 8.9 m. The elements overcame the city until the middle of the 20th century, when the Istrinskoye, Mozhaiskoye, Ruzskoye and Ozerninskoye reservoirs were built, on which the river flow was regulated. After their appearance, major floods on the Moscow River stopped.

Flood of 1908. Sofia embankment

One of the largest floods in Moscow occurred in April 1908

1972

In the summer of 1971, due to intense rains in Buryatia, a catastrophic flood occurred on the Selenga River. The water level reached almost 8 m above normal. 6 districts with 57 settlements and a population of 56 thousand people were flooded. More than 3 thousand houses were destroyed, crops were flooded on an area of ​​73.8 thousand hectares. The damage caused amounted to $47 million.

1987

In 1987, the Chita region had to endure two floods - at the end of June and in July. Floods on the rivers of the Chita region, which arose due to heavy rains, were extraordinary both in the nature of their rise and intensity, and in their duration and simultaneous coverage of almost all areas of the region. In total, 16 areas were flooded, including the Chernyshevsk station, the village of Bukachach and 50 villages. The flood damaged 1.5 thousand houses, 59 bridges, 149 km of roads. Damage from floods amounted to 105 million rubles.

Floods in Moscow stopped after the construction of reservoirs

1990
In July 1990, Typhoon Robin came to the Primorsky Territory. More than two months' worth of precipitation fell in just a few days. A catastrophic flood occurred on the rivers of the region, which suddenly overflowed with rainwater. Vladivostok, Bolshoy Kamen and the Khasan and Nadezhdinsky districts were seriously affected by it. Over 800 thousand people found themselves in the disaster zone. The flood destroyed 730 houses, 11 schools, 5 kindergartens and nurseries, and 56 shops. 26 bridges on the roads were flooded and partially destroyed. The damage amounted to 280 million rubles.

1991

A catastrophic rain flood occurred on August 1 in the Western Caucasus, when the height of the flood wave reached 5-9 m. Due to heavy rains and a tornado, mudflows occurred in Sochi, Tuapse and Lazarevsky regions. In Sochi, 254 houses were flooded, 3 clinics were destroyed, dozens of enterprises and a road bridge were flooded. More than 6 thousand tons of petroleum products spilled at the Tuapse oil refinery. 30 people died from the rampant disaster. The city of Tuapse alone suffered damage worth $144 million, and the entire Krasnodar Territory - about $300 million.

1993

In June 1993, a blind earthen dam of the Kiselevskoye Reservoir broke out near the city of Serov, Sverdlovsk Region. The flood affected 6.5 thousand people, 15 people died. The total material damage amounted to 63 billion rubles.

year 2001

The largest flood in the history of Yakutia occurred in May 2001. It was popularly dubbed the “Lena Flood.” The flood occurred due to unprecedented ice jams on the Lena. The water level in the river exceeded the maximum flood level and reached 20 meters. Already in the first days, 98% of the territory of the city of Lensk was flooded. More than 3 thousand houses were destroyed, 30.8 thousand people were injured. The total damage amounted to 7 billion rubles.

The largest flood in the history of Yakutia is called the “Lena flood”

2002

In the summer of 2002, in the south of Russia, due to heavy rainfall, a major flood occurred, which affected 9 regions. The Stavropol Territory suffered the most. There were 377 settlements in the flood zone. The disaster destroyed more than 13 thousand houses, more than 40 thousand buildings were damaged. More than 100 people died. The total damage is estimated at 16-18 billion rubles.

2004
In April 2004, a flood occurred in the Kemerovo region due to rising levels of the local rivers Kondoma, Tom and their tributaries. More than six thousand houses were destroyed, 10 thousand people were injured, nine died. In the city of Tashtagol, located in the flood zone, and the villages closest to it, 37 pedestrian bridges were destroyed by flood waters, 80 kilometers of regional and 20 kilometers of municipal roads were damaged. The disaster also disrupted telephone communications. The damage, according to experts, amounted to 700-750 million rubles.

year 2012

On July 6-7, 2012, heavy rainfall in the Krasnodar region led to the most destructive flood in the entire history of the region. The main blow of the disaster fell on the Krymsky district and directly on Krymsk, a city with a population of 57 thousand people. As a result of the flood in Krymsk, according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, 171 people died. 53 thousand people were recognized as victims of the disaster, of which 29 thousand lost property. Over 7 thousand private households and 185 apartment buildings were destroyed. Energy, gas and water supply systems, road and rail traffic were disrupted. Experts gave this flood the status of outstanding, and foreign media described it as a flash flood - sudden. The total damage from the flood is estimated at approximately 20 billion rubles.

year 2013

At the end of the summer of 2013, a powerful flood hit the Far East, which led to the largest flood in the region in the last 115 years. It covered five subjects of the Far Eastern Federal District, the total area of ​​flooded territories was more than 8 million square meters. km.

In total, 37 municipal districts, 235 settlements and more than 13 thousand residential buildings were flooded. Over 100 thousand people were affected. The most affected were the Amur Region, which was the first to receive the blow of the disaster, the Jewish Autonomous Region and the Khabarovsk Territory.

Late summer 2013 A powerful flood hit the Far East, which led to the largest flooding in the last 115 years. The flood affected five regions of the Far Eastern Federal District, the total area of ​​flooded areas amounted to more than 8 million square kilometers. In total, since the beginning of the flood, 37 municipal districts, 235 settlements and more than 13 thousand residential buildings have been flooded. Over 100 thousand people were affected. More than 23 thousand people were evacuated. The most affected were the Amur Region, which was the first to receive the blow of the disaster, the Jewish Autonomous Region and the Khabarovsk Territory.

On the night of July 7, 2012 The flood flooded thousands of residential buildings in the cities of Gelendzhik, Krymsk and Novorossiysk, as well as in a number of villages in the Krasnodar Territory. Energy, gas and water supply systems, road and rail traffic were disrupted. According to the prosecutor's office, 168 people were killed and two more were missing. Most of the dead were in Krymsk, which received the heaviest impact of the disaster. In this city, 153 people died, more than 60 thousand people were considered injured. 1.69 thousand houses in the Crimean region were recognized as completely destroyed. About 6.1 thousand houses were damaged. Damage from the flood amounted to about 20 billion rubles.

In April 2004 In the Kemerovo region, a flood occurred due to a rise in the level of the local rivers Kondoma, Tom and their tributaries. More than six thousand houses were destroyed, 10 thousand people were injured, nine died. In the city of Tashtagol, located in the flood zone, and the villages closest to it, 37 pedestrian bridges were destroyed by flood waters, 80 kilometers of regional and 20 kilometers of municipal roads were damaged. The disaster also disrupted telephone communications.
The damage, according to experts, amounted to 700-750 million rubles.

In August 2002 A fast-moving tornado and heavy rains occurred in the Krasnodar region. In Novorossiysk, Anapa, Krymsk and 15 other settlements in the region, over 7 thousand residential buildings and administrative buildings fell into the flood zone. The disaster also damaged 83 housing and communal services facilities, 20 bridges, 87.5 kilometers of roads, 45 water intakes and 19 transformer substations. 424 residential buildings were completely destroyed. 59 people died. The forces of the Ministry of Emergency Situations evacuated 2.37 thousand people from dangerous zones.

In June 2002 Nine constituent entities of the Southern Federal District suffered catastrophic flooding as a result of heavy rains. There were 377 settlements in the flood zone. The disaster destroyed 13.34 thousand houses, damaged almost 40 thousand residential buildings and 445 educational institutions. The disaster claimed the lives of 114 people and injured another 335 thousand people. Specialists from the Ministry of Emergency Situations and other ministries and departments saved a total of 62 thousand people, and over 106 thousand residents of the Southern Federal District were evacuated from dangerous zones. The damage amounted to 16 billion rubles.

July 7, 2001 In the Irkutsk region, due to heavy rains, a number of rivers overflowed their banks and flooded seven cities and 13 districts (63 settlements in total). Sayansk suffered especially. According to official data, eight people died, 300 thousand people were injured, and 4.64 thousand houses were flooded.

In May 2001 The water level in the Lena River exceeded the maximum flood and reached 20 meters. Already in the first days after the catastrophic flood, 98% of the territory of the city of Lensk was flooded. The flood practically washed Lensk off the face of the earth. More than 3.3 thousand houses were destroyed, 30.8 thousand people were injured. In total, 59 settlements in Yakutia were damaged as a result of the flood, and 5.2 thousand residential buildings were flooded. The total damage amounted to 7.08 billion rubles, including 6.2 billion rubles in the city of Lensk.

May 16 and 17, 1998 There was a severe flood in the area of ​​the city of Lensk in Yakutia. It was caused by an ice jam along the lower reaches of the Lena River, as a result of which the water level increased to 17 meters, with a critical flood level of the city of Lensk of 13.5 meters. More than 172 settlements with a population of 475 thousand people were in the flood zone. More than 50 thousand people were evacuated from the flood zone. The flood killed 15 people. Damage from the flood amounted to 872.5 million rubles.

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 was raining and a damp and cold wind was blowing in the city. 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 the important Beijing-Guangzhou and Lianyungang-Xi'an railways. If the Japanese army had managed to do this, major Chinese cities such as Wuhan and Xi'an would have been under threat. 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, these days, researchers studying the archives of the disaster claim that much fewer people died - 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. Although the total 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, which passed through Asia, Europe, North Africa and the island of Greenland (Black Death) in the mid-14th century, 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.

Floods are considered one of the worst natural disasters. Their consequences are significant destruction and loss of life. The most catastrophic of the largest floods in the world is considered to be the flood that occurred in China during the flood of the Yellow and Yangtze rivers in August 1931. These rivers are famous for frequent floods, which lead to tragedies.

The Yangtze is the longest river after the Nile and the Amazon (6380 km). In the lowest part of the river, the channel is higher than the surrounding area, which often leads to flooding when it overflows. The Yellow River, or Yellow River, is another, no less “capricious” river in China. This river overflows its banks so often that it is nicknamed “The Sorrow of China.”

In summer, southeast winds from the Pacific Ocean bring humid air that accumulates over China. This leads to heavy summer rains.
In 1931, the monsoon season was too stormy. River basins were attacked by heavy rains. As a result, the dams could not withstand the load and collapsed in many places.

In total, about 40 million people were affected by the flood, 333 thousand hectares of land were under water, and enormous damage was caused to crops. Lack of food, disease, and lack of housing led to the death of 3.7 million people. In some places the water did not recede for up to 6 months.

The city of Gaoyou suffered a huge catastrophic impact from the flood. On August 26, 1931, a powerful typhoon hit the lake located in its vicinity. The water level was too high after previous rainstorms. The dams could not cope with the load and collapsed in six places. Huge streams of water swept through the city and villages, killing 10 thousand people. In honor of those killed in December 2003, a memorial museum was opened in Gaoyu.