At least 3,000 dead, 21 million hectares of land under water, economic losses in excess of $20 billion. Those are the numbers that testify to the destruction wrought by ongoing floods in China. The deluge along the Yangzi River, if not the biggest ever, is certainly the largest in recent memory. Past floods may have killed more people, but in terms of the sheer scale of the indundation, the submersion of '98 is the one to remember.