In the 1931 China floods , Wuhan was a refuge for flood victims from outlying areas , who had been arriving since the late spring . But when the city itself was inundated in the early summer , and after a catastrophic dike failure just before 6:00 AM on July 27 , an estimated 782,189 urban citizens and rural refugees were left homeless . The flood covered an area of 32 square miles and the city was flooded under many feet of water for close to three months . Large numbers gathered on flood islands throughout the city , with 30,000 sheltering on a railway embankment in central Hankou . With little food and a complete breakdown in sanitation , thousands soon began to succumb to diseases . Jin Shilong , Senior Engineer at the Hubei Flood Prevention Agency , described the flooding : There was no warning , only a sudden great wall of water . Most of Wuhan 's buildings in those days were only one story high , and for many people there was no escape - they died by the tens of thousands . ... I was just coming off duty at the company 's main office , a fairly new three-story building near the center of town ... When I heard the terrible noise and saw the wall of water coming , I raced to the top story of the building . ... I was in one of the tallest and strongest buildings left standing . At that time no one knew whether the water would subside or rise even higher.The high-water mark was reached on 19 August at Hankou , with the water level exceeding above normal . In 1936 , when natural disaster struck Central China with widespread flooding affecting Hebei , Hunan , Jiangxi , Wuhan and Chongqing caused by the Yangtze and Huai Rivers bursting their banks , Ong Seok Kim , as Chairman of the Sitiawan Fundraising and Disaster Relief Committee , raised money and materials in support of the victims
1931 China floods
1931 China floods
Wuhan