Deluge

Deluge: The story of a Great Flood sent by God or the gods to destroy civilization as an act of divine retribution is a widespread theme in myths. The stories of Noah and his ark in Genesis, Matsya in the Puranas scriptures of Hinduism, and Utnapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh are among the most familiar versions of these myths. A large percentage of the world's cultures past and present have stories of a "great flood" that devastated earlier civilization. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deluge_%28mythology%29