The 1887 Yellow River flood in

Qing China The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...

began in September 1887 and killed at least 930,000 people.Encyclopedia of Disasters: Environmental Catastrophes and Human Tragedies
Angus M. Gunn, 2007, chapter 35: 'Yellow River China flood 1887', pp. 141–144 (this source quotes the figure of 900,500, and 2 million homeless, though some sources give other figures) It was the single deadliest flood in China, making it one of the largest disasters in China by death toll.

History

For centuries, the farmers living near the Yellow River had built

dikes Dyke (UK) or dike (US) may refer to: General uses * Dyke (slang), a slang word meaning "lesbian" * Dike (geology), a subvertical sheet-like intrusion of magma or sediment * Dike (mythology), ''Dikē'', the Greek goddess of moral justice * Dikes ...

to contain the rivers, which over time flowed higher because, not allowed to flood, they had to deposit their silt on the riverbed. In 1887, this rising river, swollen by days of heavy rain, overcame the dikes on around 28 September, causing a massive flood. Since there is no international unit to measure a flood's strength it is usually classified by the extent of the damage done, depth of the water, and the number of casualties. The waters of the Yellow River are generally thought to have broken through the dikes in Huayuankou, near the city of

Zhengzhou Zhengzhou (; ), also spelt Zheng Zhou and alternatively romanized as Chengchow, is the capital and largest city of Henan Province in the central part of the People's Republic of China. Located in north-central Henan, it is one of the Nationa ...

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is a ...

province. Owing to the low-lying plains near the area, the flood spread very quickly throughout Northern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

, covering an estimated , swamping agricultural settlements and commercial centers. After the flood, two million were left

homeless Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are: * living on the streets, also kn ...

. The resulting

pandemic A pandemic () is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. A widespread endemic disease with a stable number of in ...

and lack of basic essentials claimed as many lives as those lost directly to the flood. It was one of the worst floods in history, though the later 1931 Yangtze-Huai River flood may have killed as many as four million. The highest estimated death toll is 3,000,000.

References

External links

Dealing with the Deluge
Flood! (Nova Online) Yellow River floods Yellow River Flood, 1887 History of Zhengzhou Disasters in Henan {{Flood-stub

History

See also

References

External links