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Historic Disasters That Were Way Worse Than People Think

Khalid Elhassan April 6, 2020 33 min

Yellow River - 1887 Yellow River flood — 1887 Yellow River Flood. Hakai Magazine

37. The 1887 Yellow River Flood

The 1887 Yellow River Flood. Hakai Magazine

September of 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 rapidly 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 mouth. Many ran upstream, trying to reach a level above that of the rapidly flooding area, but were caught in the fast-moving torrent and drowned.

Within an hour, a lake as big as Lake Ontario had formed. People from drier areas tried to save as many as they could by rowing around in small boats. Some survivors reached and clung to terraces slightly higher than the water level, and waited for rescue. Others desperately clung to anything that could float. One family, knowing that it had no chance of surviving, placed a baby on top of a wooden chest, along with some food and a note bearing its name. The baby was saved. The family was never found.

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.