34 Facts About Floods

21-25 Flood Facts

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21. It rained nearly continually in California from Christmas Eve 1861 through the end of January 1862, destroying nearly 1/4 of the property in the state, turning the Central Valley into an inland sea, and bankrupting the state. – Source

22. There was a natural dam made of ice between England and France during the ice age which broke and created an enormous flood, forming the English Channel. – Source

23. It took 4 million gallons of water 7 hours to flood the Roman Colosseum 5 feet for their famous naval battle reenactments. – Source

24. There is a New York City neighborhood 30 feet below sea level that is effectively a ghost down because it cannot be hooked up to the sewer system and floods when it rains. It used to be a body-dumping area for the mafia. – Source

25. In 1928 a dam collapsed in Los Angeles, creating a 40-foot high flood wave which killed 600 people, carrying some victims over 50 miles into the Pacific Ocean. – Source

26-30 Flood Facts

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26. The largest lake in California has created accidentally after an engineering mistake led to the redirection of the Colorado River, causing the river to flood part of the valley for 2 years, creating the “Salton Sea”. – Source

27. The largest act of environmental warfare in history was when Chiang Kai-shek flooded the Yellow River, killing ~800000 Chinese, but failing to stop the Japanese advance. – Source

28. 32 years after a flood, a guy was thought to have died was found alive and well because he left his cabin the morning of the flood without telling anyone. – Source

29. In 1945, a German U-boat sank in the North Sea due to “misuse of the new toilet” which caused water to flood the submarine. – Source

30. The Zanclean Flood is a flood theorized to have filled the entire Mediterranean Sea in less than 2 years, with a discharge with about 1,000x that of the present day Amazon River. – Source

31-34 Flood Facts

Image credit: en.wikipedia.org

31. During the North Sea Flood of 1953 the mayor of Nieuwerkerk, Holland, ordered a ship captain to plug a hole in a collapsed dyke using his ship. The plan worked, saving many lives. – Source

32. In 1927 it rained so hard that the Mississippi River flooded an area the size of Scotland and some places recorded over 2ft of rain in 3 months. – Source

33. A Nigerian architect has designed a flood-proof floating school for a settlement at constant risk of flooding in which the major method of transport is a canoe. – Source

34. Massive flood-scarred Mars surface 500 million years ago. – Source