1.   With such a major flood, we must ensure the defences prevent people suffering.

2.   Any major flood in northern China could now breach the main dikes that contain the river, with disastrous consequences.

3.   Before this year, many people believed that the zone would not expand unless there was a major flood on the Mississippi.

4.   Despite five major floods now in the last decade, Napa and Sonoma Counties have had several years of below-average rainfall.

5.   Fisheries experts say outstanding hatches are not surprising in the third season after a major flood.

6.   In Liberty County, the Trinity River has unleashed major flood damage on riverfront homes five times over the past four years.

7.   In the north, major floods occur when rain from the slow-moving storms that characterize this season combine with melting snow.

8.   Major floods used to be quarter-century events in the Puget Sound region.

9.   Since the Mississippi disaster, there have been major floods in Texas, Georgia and California.

10.   That is, the area remained protected by at least eight major floods that dumped sediment atop the layers of soil, burying and preserving what lay under them.