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Which country has the worst floods?

China is prone to frequent, disastrous floods. The Huang He River (sometimes called the River of Sorrow) floods its banks two out of every three years. In 1887 the Huang He overswept its banks, killing 1,000,000 people. Farmers worked for more than a year using logs, rocks, and soil to repair the hole in the river bank, which was several hundred yards long. Because many people live close to rivers, floods always produce a high death toll in China. In 1931 heavier than usual rains burst twenty-three dams and dykes on the Yangtze River. Some 40,000,000 people were left homeless and 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 either drowned or died from the resulting famine (prolonged period of food shortage).

Further Information: Dixon, Dougal. Natural Disasters. New York: Reader's Digest Books, 1997, pp. 110–25.

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