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The Floods of 1993 Now 30 Years Later

drmwevr08 said:
They lose water for weeks that often?
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I think they’ve taken measures to protect the water plant since and have definitely taken measures to protect the baseball stadium, especially when they remodeled it… but optically it looks just as bad if not worse. Nothing says “we don’t give a ****” more than 3rd St getting covered with river water every few years… and 3rd St isn’t even that close to the river.
 
I was in Ames that summer working. I have pictures of Veenker somewhere. in one picture, all you could see was the very top of the flag on one hole.
 
Graduated from ISU that May and ha started my 1st big boy job at Ruan right after. They were having the Ruan Grand Prix through downtown DM when the floods hit. I remember being super pissed because all us Ruan employees were voluntold to work various shifts in the hospitality suites during the races and it had great views with little work.
 
We were in Des Moines for the grand prix as well. Had to take shelter in the hotel downtown because the tornado sirens started going off. We spent the night in Altoona and stocked up on stuff at Wal-Mart because we had heard how bad it flooded in Denison. We drove there the next day and about 10 miles away it looked like the town was on fire but it was actually all the dried up mud dust from people driving on previously flooded roads.

I was in high school at the time and can remember helping to clean out a business near the Boyer river. Man, mud halfway up my calves and the smell was not good.
 
The Missouri River was at record flood stage in Kansas City also. Thankfully for them they put up levees after the Flood of '51 so the city survived.
 
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I was just past HS graduation and had begun a job at a restaurant in downtown DSM. I was able to pick up a bit of unemployment money and spent the two weeks horsing around with friends. We were fortunate as 2 of the 3 of us lived in Warren County and had water. We were scooping the loop the night the water began rising and pulled off a few times to watch the water creeping upward. It was a fairly surreal experience even though we weren't directly impacted as many were. When you're 18 with no bills the little fed checks were more than good enough to take a few weeks off.
 
deadeyededric said:
The Missouri River was at record flood stage in Kansas City also. Thankfully for them they put up levees after the Flood of '51 some the city survived.
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NB: I believe the 90’s rock band Puddle of Mudd is named as a result of the members experience of the ‘93 flood while living in KC.
 
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I was around 7 at the time and lived just outside Iowa City. I just remember the streets being under water but I don't think it reached the homes.
 
stateofmind said:
I was working sales for the university phone book that summer. We stopped sales that day and headed to Lincoln, NE the next week. I worked at Happy Joe's during the school year so I went to help them before we left. That place was a couple feet deep.
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For the 1990 flood the owner of HJs was up north fishing if I remember correctly. I was sitting in the back parking lot with his brother and a couple of others watching the water inch up the lot on a beautiful sunny day. It was moving slow and we didn't have any information yet about a crest. He made the command decision that we would start sand bagging when the water reached a pop can he set down about halfway up the long back parking lot. It did not long after and the pace of rise sped way up. We bagged furiously but it was too late. We knew we were in trouble when the water starting coming in the other way spilling over Duff into the front parking lot. Eventually we were setting equipment up on counters and tables to at least save some of the equipment. It was a dark day for that business. It was so bad I applied for another job that day not knowing if I would ever have a job there again.

When the 1993 flood hit I was heading south toward Texas with my daughter to visit my brother. We stopped for the night in Kansas to visit a friend and saw the news reports on the flood. I contemplated turning around since I worked at both HJs and the Iowa State Center but quickly realized that it was devastating and flood waters would barely have receded by the time I got back. The month plus following the flood of cleanup was some of the nastiest, hardest work that seemed insurmountable.
 
I lived in Roland in 93 and it sounded like it was just pouring rain like crazy one night in the middle of the night. Looked out the window and it wasn't raining, it was a flash flood down the street. It was just a raging river.
 
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