Less than one week after Helen 's arrival , the Yangtze flood caused extreme damage around Shanghai . Helen was working as a foreign correspondent for the '' Seattle Star '' through the Scripps-Canfield League , a newspaper publishing company , and was to provide images " glorifying the glamorous Orient " . The flood of the Yangtze was the worst in recorded history , displacing 120,000 people . Over a period of three weeks , continuous floods killed over 600,000 and destroyed 12 million homes
the Yangtze flood
1931 China floods
Helen Foster Snow