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Floods, Earthquakes, and Volcanoes: History’s Most Consequential Natural Catastrophes

Khalid Elhassan December 22, 2024 15 min

Catastrophe - The Thera Eruption — The Thera Eruption. Sci Tech Daily

6. The Sudden Onset of the 1887 Yellow River Flood

Catastrophe - The 1887 Yellow River Flood — The 1887 Yellow River Flood. Hakai Magazine

Unlike the case with most rivers, floodwaters don’t gradually rise when it comes to the Yellow River. Instead, Yellow Riverfloodwaters come crashing down from on high, sweeping all in their path with great violence. September, 1887 was a particularly wet time in northern China and along the Yellow River Valley. Towards the end of the month, days of heavy rains caused the river to swiftly swell. On September 28^th, the rapidly rising waters overcame and broke through the dikes near the city of Zhengzhou in Henan Province – a flat plain near the river’s mouth. Many people ran upstream in an attempt to reach a level above that of the rapidly flooding area, but were caught in the fast moving torrent and drowned.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.