Deluge (1933)

Deluge is a 1933 pre-code apocalyptic film that opens with this:

Deluge is a tale of fantasy -an adventure in speculation- a vivid epic pictorialization of an author's imaginative flight. We the producers present it now purely for your entertainment, remembering full well God's covenant with Noah:

"And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of the flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth." -Genesis 9:11

This was the first film to capture the total destruction of New York City but was filmed entirely in Los Angeles.

Pre-code.com has screenshots, a plot description, and some background information:

Deluge is an oddity in a lot of ways. A lost film for decades, then only available in awful, Italian dubbed prints, the movie finally reappears as close as it was meant to be shown 84 years after it premiered.

Kino Lorber describes it as "a tour-de-force of astonishing special effects that rank alongside those of other such classics of the decade as King Kong and San Francisco" and says,

For decades, DELUGE was a lost film of almost mythical status, until horror/sci-fi archivist Forrest J. Ackerman discovered an Italian-dubbed print in 1981. Viewing this poor-quality print was an arduous experience and was only a dim substitute for the original film. But all this changed in 2016 when Lobster Films unearthed a 35mm nitrate negative with the original English soundtrack. ... The restored DELUGE had its premiere at L'Étrange Festival in Paris on September 18, 2016, followed by a limited theatrical release by Kino Lorber.

MoMA says, "The film’s apocalyptic plot, once the stuff of science fiction, now seems eerily prescient". Moria says, "Deluge can lay claim to being the first ever disaster movie."