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The Floods of 1993 Now 30 Years Later

I remember driving to work that morning and seeing water over the squaw creek bridge on 13th st. That creek was normally only a few feet deep and it hit 18ft that day maybe?

Until that summer never really realized that ames main business district (south duff) and most of iowa state was all built on a flood plain!!
 
I just graduated high school. I remember sandbagging around a trailer park near Dayton ave with rain falling and lightning flashing around.

I don’t think it worked and that particular trailer park was not rebuilt, though there are others still in the area.
 
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brokenloginagain said:
I remember driving to work that morning and seeing water over the squaw creek bridge on 13th st. That creek was normally only a few feet deep and it hit 18ft that day maybe?

Until that summer never really realized that ames main business district (south duff) and most of iowa state was all built on a flood plain!!
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I think that went over the bridge in 2008 and 2010. When you see it at normal stage it’s hard to even imagine.
 
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I was home from ISU for the summer. My 3rd summer working for CRANDIC. There was no shortage of track maintenance that needed done that summer.
 
16 at the time, but lived in far SW IA, so I don't remember being greatly impacted. My brother did live in the Metro at the time and worked at the Harding Hills Hy-Vee store. It was a water distribution point and he said it was chaos for about a month.

I did remember going up to Ames at some point that summer and seeing the North Des Moines softball complex under water. There is a building you can see from 80/35 that has a player painted on it and the head was barely above water.
 
Was still a kid....lived in Eastern Iowa and just remember the water going over the Coralville Res spillway on TV.
 
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I was in high school at the time. Lived in southeastern Iowa where the Iowa river meets the Mississippi. It was rough going but we saved our house and the town, but the levies were never repaired properly afterward and then we lost it all in the flood of 2008.
 
I was 14 working on my uncles farm in SE Iowa for a week when the 93 flood happened. I had to stay for another week because they weren't sure if they could get me back to my home in central Iowa.
 
Went home for an internship. Came back to help clean Hilton and once clean….no work so I worked at Mc Donald’s for a bit.
 
Took a summer class at Iowa state on natural disasters. We talked about the flood of 1993. I remember reading the news articles for the class calling Iowa the 6th great lake.
 
In high school at the time in Spirit Lake. Along one of the lakes where the houses were surrounded by water they were filling basements with sand to keep them stabilized. Packed a lot of sandbags in at the station they setup in front of Fareway. I remember at one point chasing carp around a restaurant parking lot that was under about 8 inches of water.
 
We found a ton of stuff from Save U More in the fields to the east of it. Wife worked in Campus town and it took her over an hour to get home as we live in north Ames. Co-workers and I were up at 5 am moving equipment to higher ground. Spent the afternoon at Tip-Top that day. Nothing else we could do.
 
There's a huge park in Waterloo (Bontrager) that also acts as an overflow area. It's probably 6 acres and 25-30 feet below street level. When we get a huge rain there might be a few puddles in it and never more that 3 or 4 inches of water. just sitting. There were a couple weeks in '93 where it was threatening the road and probably got within about 2 feet of spilling over.

Never seen anything like it and will always remember the idiots swimming in it.
 
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I grew up in Ames and was 7 during the 93 floods. College creek ran through our back yard but usually was only a couple inches deep by a couple feet wide. From our back door to the creek was probably 250-300 feet. There were a couple of nights my entire family slept at ground level so we would know to get the hell out when the creek came through the door. It never did, but it was way too close for comfort.
 
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I was 13 and hadn't started working summers at ISU yet, but both my parents worked there. I know my Dad was really busy back then as he worked facilities. The only thing I remember is all the sandbags around the campus and dealing with all the flooding at home. It was a crazy time.
 
I was going to school in CR and couldn't drive back to Ames. Hwy 30 throughout Benton and Marshall counties was under water.
 
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