Low Carbon Floods In 1951

By Paul Homewood

1951 was not only a terribly year for flooding in Britain, as one of the worst floods on record hit northern Italy:

 

One of the biggest natural disasters in Italy triggered by climatic conditions was the Polesine flood of November 1951. Following a rainy season the river Po had progressively risen. The breaking of levees at various points along its course had not been sufficient to reduce the water flow significantly. Moreover, the distance between the dykes at the river’s mouth became too narrow, causing the water flow to further increase. At its zenith, the flood reached the Polesine, near the river’s delta, and submerged hundreds of hectares of agricultural land lying below sea level, killing 84 people and leaving 180,000 homeless.

https://www.environmentandsociety.org/arcadia/great-fear-polesine-flood-1951

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The flooding that month extended to the Rhone Valley:

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https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/253938/

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A few months earlier what were called the worst floods in US history hit the Mid West.

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But the enormity of the devastation from the Yangste floods in 1951 is difficult to comprehend – one million lost their homes, 100,000 lost their lives.

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And a month later, one of the “worst floods in decades” struck Manchuria:

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HONG KONG, Sept. 17–With torrential rains swelling the upper reaches of the Liao River, the farmlands of Western Liaoning, in Manchuria, have been inundated by "one of the worst floods in the last few decades," Chinese Communist dispatches disclosed today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1951/09/18/archives/ones-of-worst-floods-in-decades-strikes-manchuria-130000-flee.html