Primitive Transmission
The Old Testament is a confused and contradictory Telephone Game text. It is full of parables intended by the Hebrew leaders to give moral messages and in no way should be taken literally. The Flood was a local event caused by the melting of the glaciers. That's how far back these stories went.
Yah-weh is similar to the way the Romans pronounced Jove. It represents a prehistoric Mongol bloodbath, not a god, that separated the Hebrews from the other Aryans, as all the tribes were scattered (The Odyssey also re-enacts that diaspora, which brought into Europe all its White people).
The glaciers took thousands of years to melt. The retreat of the glaciers caused desertification in Arabia and Africa.