Super Typhoon Nina (1975)

[Ptarmigan]

A trough in the western Pacific spawns a bunch of disturbances on July 29, 1975. One of those disturbances forms into a tropical depression than a tropical storm named Nina. Tropical Storm Nina rapidly intensifies and becomes Super Typhoon Nina with winds of 160 mph (140 knots) and central pressure of 904 millibars on August 1, 1975, making it a Category 5 typhoon.

Nina makes it first landfall on Taiwan was a Category 3 typhoon with 115 mph (100 knots) wind and it weakens considerably. Gusts as high as 138 mph (119 knots) were recorded and up to 28 inches (70 centimeters) of rain fell in Taiwan. 29 people were killed from Nina, Then it emerges in the Formosa Straits as a Category 1 typhoon. Then Nina makes it final landfall on Jinjiang, Fujian, China on as a 70 mph (60 knots) tropical storm. The worst was yet to come.

As Nina moved inland, it interacted with a front and stalled out. It dumped extremely heavy rains over the Zhumadian, Henan where Banqiao Dam is located. Up to 33 inches (83 centimeters) of rain fell in 6 hours! Nina dumped a total of 64.2 inches (163 centimeters) of rain. All that heavy rain caused the Banqiao Dam and 61 other dams to fail. All that flood water from the heavy rains of Nina killed at least 100,000 people. Some put the death toll as high as 250,000. The flooding created temporary lakes of dead bodies and debris. The flood was a 1 in 2,000 year event.

Nina is one of the deadliest typhoons on record and one of the deadliest tropical cyclones in history.

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1.   1,000,000   1970 Bhola cyclone   East Pakistan, Pakistan (now Bangladesh)   November 13, 1970
2.   300,000   1839 Indian cyclone   India   November 25, 1839
3.   300,000   1737 Calcutta cyclone   India   October 7, 1737
4.   210,000   Super Typhoon Nina—contributed to Banqiao Dam failure   China   August 7, 1975
5.   200,000   Great Backerganj Cyclone of 1876   present day Bangladesh   October 30, 1876
6.   150,000   Cyclone Nargis   Myanmar   May 2, 2008
7.   138,866   1991 Bangladesh cyclone   Bangladesh   April 29, 1991
8.   100,000   1882 Bombay cyclone   Bombay, India   1882
9.   60,000   1922 Swatow Typhoon   China   August 1, 1922
9.   60,000   1864 Calcutta Cyclone   India   October 5, 1864

China would be hit by an even deadlier disaster, the Tangshan Earthquake in the early morning hours of July 28, 1976. It had a magnitude of 8.2. It claimed at least 255,000 lives. Some put it as high as 750,000 killed from the earthquake, making it one of the deadliest disasters in history.

Wikipedia-Typhoon Nina
Wikipedia-Banqiao Dam
Wikipedia-List of Natural Disasters By Death Toll
JTWC's ATCR on the 1975 typhoon season