45 Fun Facts About Floods

In which Arizona slot canyon did a 1997 flash flood kill a group of tourists?

Antelope Canyon: hardly any rain fell there that day, but runoff from a thunderstorm upstream funnelled into the narrow slot.

Which adjective describes flooding from rain pooling on saturated or frozen ground, not a river overflowing?

Areal flooding: on flat ground such as floodplains and endorheic basins, rain arrives faster than saturated or frozen soil can absorb it or the land can drain it, so water pools in place.

Which US city suffered three '500-year' floods in three straight years?

Houston: a '500-year' flood only has a 1 in 500 chance each year, so another can follow soon after, as Hurricane Harvey's did in 2017.

Which crop do farmers grow in fields they deliberately keep flooded?

Rice: paddies usually stay flooded until about a week before harvest, which makes lowland rice a very thirsty crop.

Which waterborne disease often spreads after floods taint drinking water with sewage?

Cholera: in 1854 John Snow traced a London outbreak to one contaminated street pump, and local officials removed its handle.

Periodic flooding sustained ancient peoples along the Tigris, Euphrates, Indus and which other river?

The Nile's yearly flood no longer reaches Egypt's fields: since 1970 the Aswan High Dam has held it back, trapping the silt that once enriched them.

'Overland flooding' in the flat Red River Valley affects Minnesota, North Dakota and which Canadian province?

Manitoba: the Red River flows north into Lake Winnipeg, and its worst floods come in spring, as snowmelt runs downstream into river ice.

A 1963 landslide into which Italian dam's reservoir sent a wave that destroyed a whole town?

The Vajont Dam itself stayed almost intact, but the water that surged over it flattened the town of Longarone below.

The 1931 floods hit which two major cities on the Yangtze?

Wuhan and Nanjing, then the capital, were both inundated in summer 1931; the government estimated 25 million people were affected, and four Yangtze stations recorded over 600 mm of rain in a single month.

Which river, nicknamed 'China's Sorrow', burst its dikes in 1887 in one of history's deadliest floods?

The Yellow River carries so much silt that its bed has built up above the surrounding plain, so a broken dike spills the river across the land.

Which rock band reworked Memphis Minnie's blues song about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927?

Led Zeppelin: 'When the Levee Breaks' closes its fourth album, with John Bonham's drums recorded by microphones hung above a stairwell.

Whose handling of the 1927 Mississippi flood as commerce secretary helped propel him to the presidency?

Herbert Hoover ran the relief effort, and when abuses in the refugee camps came to light, he named Robert Moton to investigate them.

The Johnstown Flood of 1889 was caused by the failure of which dam upstream of the Pennsylvania town?

The South Fork Dam had been weakened by the club that owned its lake, which lowered the dam and put fish screens across its spillway.

The 1889 Johnstown Flood became the first major disaster relief effort for which organization?

The American Red Cross: Clara Barton ran the relief in person and stayed in Johnstown for five months amid the wreckage.

The Great Molasses Flood of January 1919 struck which American city?

Boston: the smell of molasses is said to have lingered in the North End for decades afterwards.

Roughly how fast did the wave of the 1919 Great Molasses Flood travel?

35 mph: the molasses first surged fast enough to sweep people up, then thickened as it cooled, trapping those it caught.

Thailand's 2011 floods caused a global shortage of which computer part?

Hard disk drives: Thailand made about a quarter of the world's supply, and floodwater swamped factories, including Western Digital's.

Which Dutch province lost the most lives in the 1953 North Sea flood?

Zeeland: the last dike gap, at Ouwerkerk, was closed with four concrete caissons that now house the flood museum.

The 1953 flood killed 58 people at which low-lying spot in the Thames estuary in Essex?

Canvey Island had to be evacuated after the flood, and the island was later given a new sea wall.

Which system of dams and storm-surge barriers did the Netherlands build after the 1953 flood?

The Delta Works' largest barrier, across the Eastern Scheldt, was changed from a solid dam to gates that normally stay open, so the estuary keeps its tides and sea life.

Which port city's harbour do the giant floating gates of the Maeslantkering protect from storm surges?

Rotterdam: the barrier must not hinder ships on the port's main waterway, so its two gates sit on the banks until a surge threatens.

Which children's novel includes the tale of a Dutch boy who plugged a leaking dike with his finger?

Hans Brinker: in the novel the dike hero is a nameless boy from a story read aloud in an English classroom, not Hans himself.

The deadly Lynmouth Flood of August 1952 followed a night of extreme rain on which upland?

Exmoor: some nine inches of rain fell on the moor in a day, and it poured into the East and West Lyn rivers, which meet at Lynmouth.

The Great Flood of 1993 in the American Midwest ran along the Mississippi and which other great river?

The Missouri and Mississippi flooded so badly that Valmeyer, Illinois, rebuilt the whole town on higher ground outside the floodplain.

Which UN Secretary-General called Pakistan's 2010 floods the worst disaster he had ever seen?

Ban Ki-moon: even after his visit, the UN had raised only a small fraction of the emergency aid it had asked for.

Melting glaciers contributed to the 2022 Pakistan floods, causing glacial flooding in which northern region?

Gilgit-Baltistan, home to thousands of Karakoram and Himalayan glaciers, saw glacial lake outburst floods after the 2022 heatwave; one destroyed the Hassanabad bridge in Hunza in May.

In the Atrahasis epic, which god secretly warns his priest of the flood and tells him to build a boat?

Enki had sworn to keep the gods' plan secret, so he spoke his warning to the wall of his priest's reed hut instead.

The Greek counterpart of Noah, who survived Zeus's flood with his wife Pyrrha, was called what?

Deucalion: after the flood, he and Pyrrha repeopled the earth by throwing stones behind them, which turned into people.

Deforestation and the removal of which water-absorbing habitat increase flooding?

Wetlands: more than 8,000 acres of them along Massachusetts's Charles River have been set aside to hold floodwater and protect the land downstream.

Climate change raises flood risk via sea-level rise and by intensifying which global process?

The water cycle intensifies because a warmer atmosphere holds about 7% more moisture per degree Celsius, so extreme rain events become more frequent and heavier.

In tidal terms, what does 'the flood' mean?

The incoming tide: on England's Holy Island of Lindisfarne, it covers the causeway to the mainland, so drivers must check tide times before crossing.

Designing dams, spillways and flood barriers is a job for which branch of engineering?

Hydraulic engineering: in ancient Sumer, irrigation and water-control systems helped farmers grow surplus crops, which fed the growth of large cities.

The Arno's November 1966 flood damaged millions of books and artworks in which Italian city?

Florence: volunteers from Italy and abroad, nicknamed the 'mud angels', dug books and artworks out of the mud.

The Thames Barrier is raised at which point of the tidal cycle when a surge threatens?

Low water: the gates are closed after the ebb, roughly four hours before the surge peak, leaving room for the river to flow in; they reopen once the sea level outside has fallen back to the river level.

Which body named the Dutch sea defences a Seven Wonder of the Modern World?

The American Society of Civil Engineers: its tribute starts with the dam that sealed off the Zuiderzee, turning a saltwater inlet into a lake.

The 1927 Mississippi flood pushed many Delta sharecroppers into which mass movement?

The Great Migration: within a year of the flood, tens of thousands of sharecroppers had left the Delta, many for Chicago and other Northern cities.

The 1931 Yangtze floods followed which climatic sequence?

Drought, then snowmelt and rain: after dry years from 1928 to 1930, heavy winter snow melted into sustained spring rain and summer cyclones, so the usual three high-water seasons merged into one deluge.

What is the US National Weather Service's well-known slogan for flood safety?

'Turn Around, Don't Drown' is the National Weather Service's flood-safety slogan, urging drivers to back away from flooded roads, since even shallow moving water can sweep a car away.

What is a Dutch 'overlaat'?

An overlaat is a deliberately lowered levee segment: the Beerse Overlaat on the Meuse let floodwater spill onto land judged less valuable, relieving pressure on the dikes protecting areas downstream.

Which US agency runs the National Flood Insurance Program?

The Federal Emergency Management Agency runs the program, but many of its flood policies are sold through private insurance companies.

After a 1900 hurricane flood killed thousands, which Texas city raised its ground level and built a seawall?

Galveston: pumped-in sand raised parts of the city by as much as 17 feet, and more than 2,100 buildings were lifted to sit on top of it.

Which river's August 2002 flood inundated Dresden's historic centre?

The Elbe: as it rose, staff moved hundreds of artworks in Dresden's Zwinger, including Raphael's Sistine Madonna, to higher floors.

Which 2005 hurricane's floodwaters covered about 80% of New Orleans after its defences failed?

Hurricane Katrina: investigators found that several of the city's floodwalls collapsed because of flaws in the way they had been designed.

Typhoon Nina's rain burst which dam in Henan province in August 1975?

The Banqiao Dam was one of 62 dams that failed in that storm, in floods that killed more than 26,000 people.

Which event on 26 December 2004 flooded coastlines from Indonesia to East Africa?

A tsunami: on a beach in Phuket, schoolgirl Tilly Smith recognised the warning signs from a geography lesson, and her alarm got the beach cleared in time.