In 2024, there were a total of 145 fatalities reported due to floods in the United States, up from 79 fatalities in the previous year. Since 2010, the highest number of lives lost due to floods in a single year was recorded in 2015, with a total of 189.

Flash flooding is the top weather-related killer, responsible for an average of 140 deaths per year across the United States. Although precipitation forecasting and understanding of flash flood causes have improved in recent years, there are still many unknown factors that play into flash flooding. Despite having accurate and timely rainfall reports, some river basins simply do not respond to rainfall as meteorologists might expect. The Flash Flood Potential Index (FFPI) was developed in order to gain insight into these “problem basins”, giving National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologists insight into the intrinsic properties of a river basin and the potential for swift and copious rainfall runoff.The goal of the FFPI is to quantitatively describe a given sub-basin’s risk of flash flooding based on its inherent, static characteristics such as slope, land cover, land use and soil type/texture. It leverages both Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as well as datasets from various sources. By indexing a given sub-basin’s risk of flash flooding, the FFPI allows the user to see which subbasins are more predisposed to flash flooding than others. Thus, the FFPI can be added to the situational awareness tools which can be used to help assess flash flood risk.

In 2023, floods caused the death of roughly ***** people across the globe. Nevertheless, this death toll is dwarfed in comparison to the peak recorded in 1999. That year, some ****** people died as a result of floods, mostly the consequence of one of the deadliest flood incidents of the previous century, which hit Venezuela in December. The effects of flooding While the death toll is the most critical impact of flooding incidents, it is not the only one. For example, more than ** million people were impacted by floods worldwide in 2023, including those injured, affected or left homeless. In 2010 alone, almost *** million people were affected. Floods also incur massive economic damage by destroying buildings and infrastructure. Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Egypt were the most exposed to river flooding as of 2024. Climate change and flooding As climate change causes global temperatures to rise, floods are expected to increase in frequency and severity. A warmer atmosphere is able to retain more moisture, leading to an increase in intense downpours. It also affects snowmelt patterns. According to a 2022 report, the global population exposed to flood was expected to rise by ** percent in the case of an increase in global temperatures of *** degrees Celsius.

This statistic shows the number of deaths due to flooding disasters in certain countries between 1900 and 2016*. The floods in China in July 1931 led to 3.7 million deaths.FloodsThe 1931 Central China floods caused the most deaths due to a flood in the past century. 28 years later in 1959, the Yellow River flooded into East China killing an estimated 2 million people. The death toll due to this flood has been also associated with the Great sparrow campaign that arose due to the Great Chinese Famine that began in 1958. Citizens were told to kill sparrows and other wild birds that ate crop seeds which lead to an explosive increase in the population of crop-eating insects. This massive ecological shift, starvation, as well as floods and drought lead to the deaths of many Chinese people. More recently, a 1996 flood and 1998 flood in Yangtze, China caused some 30.7 billion U.S. dollars and 24 billion U.S. dollars in damage. In 2014, 38 lives were lost in the United States due to floods or flash floods. Since 1980, the two of the most significant natural disasters have been the earthquake in Haiti in January 2010, which caused 22,570 deaths and the 2004 earthquake and resulting tsunami which caused 220,000 deaths in countries like Thailand and Sri Lanka. Death tolls in Haiti were aggravated by poverty and poor housing conditions that many Haitians experience.

Flood can be categorized as flash floods, river floods, and coastal floods. The most lethal type of flooding is flash floods usually are usually contributed to by rainfall intensity and duration. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 caused ***** deaths and the flooding from the storm is considered one of the deadliest floods in U.S. history.

With a risk index score of ***, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Vietnam are the top countries worldwide regarding river flood risk, based on their physical exposure to this type of event. Thailand followed a close second, with a risk index score of ***. Where are flooding events most common? In 2024, nine out of the top 10 countries in terms of exposure to river flood risk were located in Asia, in particular in the south and eastern regions of the continent. Southeast Asia is prone to frequent and intense flooding events due to several factors, which include low average elevations, high incidence of tropical storms and heavy rains, prolonged monsoons, and underdeveloped flood protection infrastructure. In addition, climate change is also contributing to the increase in frequency and severity of these events. It is estimated that the global population exposed to flooding incidents will increase by ** percent in a two-degrees-Celsius warming scenario. Record-breaking floods in Pakistan and Bangladesh Amongst the countries most exposed to floods in Southeast Asia, Bangladesh and Pakistan were particularly affected by floods in 2022. Torrential rain and unceasing downpours struck the countries from early June that year, leading to one of the worst flooding events in their history. In Pakistan, the floods have caused more than ***** deaths. In Bangladesh, an estimated *** million people were affected by widespread damage to homes, infrastructure, croplands, and sanitation facilities. Overall, Pakistan and Bangladesh had some of the largest populations exposed to flood risk worldwide.

Data on death, displacement, flooding and landslides caused by heavy rains in April 2020

This report outlines these findings, including damage and loss estimates and social and economic impacts, and proposes strategies for resilient recovery and reconstruction planning. Heavy rain combined with multiple tropical storms throughout the extended rainy season played a large part in the extensive flooding. Flash floods were reported in several areas in the north in May, and tropical depression Haima arrived in June followed by Nock-Ten in July, the combination of which caused widespread flooding. Overall, the floods affected more than 13 million people and resulted in more than 680 deaths. The floods impacted heavily on the private sector, particularly manufacturing. Manufacturing makes up about 38.5 percent of Thailand's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is one of the main drivers of Thailand's exports. The majority of manufacturers are located in five flood-affected provinces, namely Bangkok, Ayuthaya, Nakhon Sawan, Pathum Thani, and Samut Sakhon. Tourism, housing and the financial sector were also heavily affected. Though there was some damage to tourism infrastructure, the greatest impact came from losses in revenue from accommodation, transportation, shopping, food and beverages, entertainment and sightseeing. Recovery and reconstruction needs are estimated to be THB 1.5 trillion (USD 50 billion) over a five-year period.

This dataset "Global hotspots of climate related disasters" shows the number of people impacted by climate-related disasters recorded in the EM-DAT database between 2000 and 2020. This dataset was used to prepare the maps and the analysis of the paper Donatti C.I., Nicholas K., Fedele G., Delforge D., Speybroeck N., Moraga P., Blatter J., Below R., Zvoleff A. 2024. Global hotspots of climate-related disasters. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2024.104488. This dataset includes information on people impacted by Drought, tropical cyclones, flash flood, riverine flood, forest fire, land fire, heat wave, landslide and mudslide. Data on coastal flood was not included because the database only had recordings until 2013. Data on disaster sub-types “landslides” and “mudslides” as presented in the EM-DAT were further combined as one single climate-related disaster (“land and mudslides”) for the analyses. Likewise, data on disaster sub-types “forest fire” and “land fire” were further combined as one climate-related disaster (“wildfire”). The data was accessed directly from the EM-DAT database and then summarized as show in the dataset. We used this database, downloaded on June 2nd 2021, to access data on “total affected” people and the “total deaths” per disaster event impacting a country (i.e., an entry in the EM-DAT), which were combined in this study to create the variable “total people impacted”. In the EM-DAT database, “total affected” represents the sum of people “injured,” “affected,” and “homeless” resulting from a particular event. “Injured” were considered those that have suffered from physical injuries, trauma, or an illness requiring immediate medical assistance, including people hospitalized, as a direct result of a disaster, “affected” were considered people requiring immediate assistance during an emergency and “homeless” were considered those whose homes were destroyed or heavily damaged and therefore needed shelter after an event. “Total deaths” include people that have died or were considered missing, those whose whereabouts since the disaster were unknown and presumed dead based on official figures. More details can be found under “documentation, data structure and content description” at emdat.be. In the dataset, "ADM-CODE" refers to the code used to identify each administrative area, which refers to the code of FAO's Global Administrative Unit Layer, GAUL.

In 2021, 40 percent of respondents to a survey conducted in Germany thought the government was not doing enough to help flooding victims. 35 percent thought the opposite. The survey refers to the flash flooding disaster in parts of Germany in July 2021, which left behind fatalities and destruction.

This data is the distribution data of 1:1 million historical mountain torrent disasters in the Himalayas. The villages in the Himalayas were visited and surveyed. From the founding of the People's Republic of China to 2016, there have been flash flood disasters that have caused deaths at the same time. Record whether there have been flash flood disasters in the village, the location of the flash flood disaster, and use GIS software to plot the coordinates of the historical flash flood disaster events and store their coordinates in the form of ten progress to obtain the history of the Himalayas. The location of flash flood disasters forms the distribution data of historical flash flood disasters in the Himalayas.

In 2024, about **** million people in the Philippines had been affected by floods that occurred in the country. The number of people impacted by floods in the Philippines was highest in 2012 at about **** million people.

Activation time (UTC): 2018-10-10 11:20:00
Event time (UTC): 2018-10-10 02:00:00
Event type: Flood (Flash flood)

Activation reason:
During the night of October 09, in the area of Sant Llorenç des Cardassar, there has been a flash flood due to heavy rains in a short time (230 mm) that has caused 9 deaths, missing persons, evacuated and numerous damages.

Reference products: 0
Delineation products: 0
Grading products: 9

Copernicus Emergency Management Service - Mapping is a service funded by European Commission aimed at providing actors in the management of natural and man-made disasters, in particular Civil Protection Authorities and Humanitarian Aid actors, with mapping products based on satellite imagery.

The magnitude 7.2 earthquake that struck Haiti on August 2021 has been the deadliest natural disaster in Latin America and the Caribbean from 2018 to 2022, estimated to have killed 2,248 people. The earthquake was followed by the mudslide and flash flood caused by a collapsed dam in Brumadinho, Brazil in 2019 with approximately 300 deaths.

Floods are the most common type of natural disaster recorded in Europe. Between 2001 and 2020, flooding accounted for 41 percent of all weather-related disasters reported. By comparison, extreme temperature made up 23 percent of all natural disaster occurrences in that time period. As of 2021, the 1953 storm surge in the Netherlands and Belgium was the deadliest flood in Europe, with over 2,000 fatalities, while the 2021 river/flash flood in Germany and Belgium had 209 fatalities.

Contributors to weather-related incidents
Contributors to weather-related disaster incidents may be human action, land use, and land cover besides the obvious climatic factors. As of 2021, around 92 million addresses in Germany had a flooding risk category of hazard class 1. Elevated temperatures and strong winds can also intensify extreme weather disasters, as has been the case for wildfires in the Mediterranean in recent years.

Other effects and costs Besides environmental damage, weather-related disasters affect the local population, hinder economic growth and come with huge insurance costs. For example, between 2013 and 2020, programmed restoration expenditure for forests damaged by fire in Italy amounted to 130 million euros.

Tanzania reported a total of ** natural disasters, such as floods and storms, between 2013 and 2020. The country is regularly affected by weather hazards, which lead to destruction, deaths, and thousands of people being forced to leave their homes. In 2019, Tanzania was hit by a cyclone, flash floods, and a hailstorm in only two months. Subsequently, in 2020, a total of ***** natural disasters, mainly floods, affected the country and caused disruption and displacement.