Human consequences
Hundreds of villages are swallowed up; famine and disease push the toll even higher.
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FloodYellow River flood
900,000Deaths
Not quantifiedDisplaced / homeless
Not quantifiedEstimated cost
- Estimates of 900,000 to 2 million deaths, from drowning or the famine and epidemics that followed.
After prolonged rain, the Yellow River’s dikes give way near Zhengzhou. The river, raised above the plain by its own sediment, floods some 130,000 km² of Henan and Anhui.
Consequences
Environmental consequences
The river leaves its bed and flows south into the Huai basin, before being forced back into its course in 1888.
Economic consequences
The great grain plain of northern China is covered in silt for years.
Political consequences
The disaster further weakens the Qing dynasty, criticised for its poor upkeep of the dikes.
Further reading
Similar disasters
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In the rankings : The deadliest floods No. 2
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