 Meanwhile, the relatively dense population and rich cities along the river make the floods more deadly and costly.The most recent major floods were the 1998 Yangtze River Floods, but more disastrous were the 1954 Yangtze River Floods, which killed around 30,000 people.Although the mouth of the Yellow River has fluctuated widely north and south of the Shandong peninsula within the historical record, the Yangtze has remained largely static.