Rivers, perhaps even more than oceans, have served as the lifeblood for civilization; their importance is why so many major cities and ports are based on them.

Without cities opening up trade and transportation routes, it is highly doubtful life as we know it today would ever have gotten past a certain, primitive stage.

But as life-affirming and civilization-important as rivers are, they possess a side of their personalities that is positively deadly.

Flooding, killer currents, susceptibility to ocean tides and even tsunamis can transform a relatively docile river into a raging machine of death and destruction in a heartbeat.

In fact, from flooding alone, each year rivers cause damage that added up just in North America, costs billions in rescue, recovery, and rebuilding.

On the next page, we cover three famous, important and deadly rivers that serve as examples of what rage a river is capable of if the environment is right.

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