As rains continue in TN, here's a look at the five worst floods to hit India

Over the past week, as heavy rains have battered Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, visuals of flooded streets and stranded people have dominated news media. The floods have brought back memories of similar disasters from other parts of the country, most notably the 2005 deluge in Mumbai. The deluge in Mumbai, too, was an unprecedented phenomenon in the coastal city, and brought the focus on shoddy planning and inadequate urban infrastructure. Among the recent instances of floods, the Mumbai deluge saw the highest number of human casualties. The floods in Uttarakhand, which affected almost the entire state in 2013, too, were blamed partly on unplanned development and man-made causes. While 580 persons were confirmed to have lost their lives in the floods, 5474 persons were declared missing and presumed dead. In the Ladakh cloudburst, while the total amount of rainfall was not as high as in Mumbai and Chennai, the disaster was caused because of the intensity of the rainfall and the fact that Ladakh is otherwise a dry region, not prepared for heavy rainfall. Here’s a look at five previous instances of flood fury. (Note-The figures for the amount of rains for Tamil Nadu are those for the month of November 2015.)