Obviously there must have been a monstrous flood in the region because at one point the Black Sea was a freshwater lake.
Whew! At least we now know how the whales wound up in the desert.
And the Sahara desert was grassland and lakes 12000 years ago. There’s plenty of evidence pointing to a much wetter mideast in the past as well.
I think what is important to consider is that the reason there are multiple stories of a ‘flood’, and varying evidence, is that there have been many large scale floods throughout the history of Earth.
The crust of the Earth is constantly moving up and down. As it does, water then seeks the lowest level. Ergo, water level changes happen daily. Large scale ones happen when things like Earthquakes occur. Those happen in the hundreds per day. There have been many ‘floods’, and many stories. Like the Epic of Gilgamesh.
The story in the Bible on Noah is a parable, but is based on an actual incident, or multiple incidents.
The importance of the story in the Bible is that nobody but Noah would listen to God even when warned of the impending catastrophe.