1931 China Floods

Between June and August 1931, catastrophic flooding across the Yangtze, Huai, and Yellow Rivers inundated an area the size of England, drowning or starving an estimated 1 to 4 million people — the deadliest natural disaster in recorded history. Prolonged drought followed by record snowmelt and rain turned the rivers into inland seas, submerging 34 million acres of farmland and displacing roughly 28 million people. Disease, starvation, and exposure in the aftermath claimed more lives than the floodwaters themselves.