The Weather Century- The Mississippi River Flood Of 1993
No doubt the flood of the century, rains began falling in the Upper Midwest in March of 1993 and continued into September. The Mississippi River Flood affected nine states, the Upper and Lower Mississippi Valley and parts of the Missouri River. This flood lasted months through the sweltering summer months. But it really started in late 1992 when the upper Midwest had unusually high rainfall. In March though with the heavy snowpack, the heavy rains quickly melted all of that and thus the flooding began. For over 72 days and over 10 weeks, relentless rains fell adding more water to the swollen Mississippi River. From April to June, an average of over 16 inches of rain fell in the upper Mississippi Valley, the wettest period ever. In May, record flooding started occuring in South Dakota and Minnesota. Over seven inches of rain fell on Sioux Falls, South Dakota causing flooding to the urban and residential areas. The Big Sioux and Vermillion rivers in South Dakota went above flood stage and stayed that way into mid-June. By June, the flooding had spread southward as parts of Minnesota were issued federal disaster areas for the first time due to flooding. Flooding occuring in southern Minnesota, southeastern South Dakota and Iowa and in Wisconsin when a levee broke in Black River Falls flooding 100 homes. 1,270 levees or floodwalls failed during this epic flood. In the state of Iowa from June 22-July 25, somewhere in the state gets measureable rainfall everyday! By late June, river traffic is stopped from Cairo, IL to St. Paul, MN and on the Missouri River from Sioux City, IA to the point where it joins the Mississippi River. This went on untill early August stranding more then 5,000 loaded barges. A dangerous situation occured in Des Moines on July 11. For 11 days, the cities water treatment plant was closed due to the flooding leaving over 250,000 people without water. On the 16th, all bridges between Burlington, IA to St. Louis along the Mississippi were closed. That lasted 4 days. On the 21st, 46.9 foot flood stage broke St. Louis's record 43.2 foot mark causing parts of the downtown area to flood. On August 1, a Burger King along the waterfront broke loose and hit the I-55/70 bridge. St. Louis also set a new flood stage record of 49.58 feet. On the 26th of July, all rail traffic stopped at Kansas City due to all the flooding. For 2 months, St. Charles County, MO was under water due to its location at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. A huge gamble occured on the 3rd and 4th. In Prairier du Rocher, IL, workers broke intentionally a 400 foot hole and then a 1,000 foot hole in a levee to slow water. It saved the town from being submerged in water. Heavy rains in late August, forced residents of Des Moines to evacuate again as they did in July. By September 1, Hannibal, LA and Clarksville, MO had experienced 153 straight days of flooding. The epic flooding covered 500 miles long and 200 miles wide. Over 50,000 homes were damaged and 12,000 miles of farmland was left unproductive. The Great Flood of 1993 was the most devestating one of the century. For MRS Weather, I'm Marcus Smith.
MRS Weather
The Weather Century
