1887 Yellow River Flood

In late September 1887, the Yellow River — known in China as "China's Sorrow" — breached its levees near Zhengzhou in Henan Province during the Qing Dynasty, killing an estimated 900,000 to 2 million people. The floodwaters covered 50,000 square miles, destroying more than 1,500 towns and villages across the densely populated North China Plain, though this area is 32% smaller than the 34 million acres inundated by the 1931 China Floods. Famine and epidemic in the months that followed compounded the initial death toll, making this the second-deadliest flood in recorded history. Post-disaster grain shortages caused mortality rates 40% higher than in comparable non-flood years.