1887 Yellow River flood: Difference between revisions

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-The [[Yellow River]] (''Huang He'') in [[China]] is prone to flooding, due to the broad expanse of largely flat land around it. The '''1887 Yellow River floods''' devastated the area, killing between 900,000-2,000,000&nbsp;people. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters ever recorded.
-For centuries, the farmers living near the Yellow River had built [[Dike (construction)|dikes]] to contain the rising waters, caused by silt accumulation on the riverbed. In 1887, this rising riverbed, coupled with days of heavy rain, overcame the dikes, causing a massive flood.
-The waters of the Yellow River are generally thought to have broken through the dikes in Huayankou, near the city of [[Zhengzhou]] in [[Henan]] province. Owing to the low-lying plains near the area, the flood spread very 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 claimed as many lives as those lost directly by the flood itself. It was one of the worst floods in history, though the later [[1931 Yellow River flood]] may have killed as many as four million.<ref>{{cite book | last = Trimble | first = Stanley Wayne | title = Encyclopedia of Water Science | publisher = CRC Press | date = 2007 | pages = 383 | isbn = 0849396271}}</ref>
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