The Floods of 1993 Now 30 Years Later

[CYdTracked]

Ch 13 today had a story with some old clips today so a good time to dig up some stuff on this.

I was 14 at the time and remember the Dallas County Fair was going on. Friday afternoon we were told to pack up and take everything home as they expected the Racoon River to go out of its banks and flood the fairgrounds in Adel overnight. We took our livestock and tack home that evening and waited on word if we'd have our show the next morning. Didn't have internet or cell phones at the time so had to rely on the news or land lines to get updates. So we were up early that morning to get ready until we eventually got a call that the fairgrounds had flooded. I remember volunteering to fill sandbags some days after that as the Racoon kept creeping into the towns near us.

Crazy to think now into a 3rd straight summer of drought how hectic things were with all the rain we got that year.

 

[CyCrazy]

I was 11 but lived in NwIa. I have been through enough floods working at Veenker and my apartment by the boys and girls club watching all my stuff leave the apt. I was in the last building and had 5 feet rolling through the apt. Fun times.

 

[CYdTracked]

 

[cdnlngld]

I was 16 a the time, living in Boone. I was taking flying lessons at the time, and remember seeing a large percentage of the ground reflecting the sky for as far as the could see.

 

[CascadeClone]

I was at ISU in 93, lived by Mary Greely. My roommate was a PT for the football team and would leave at ~6am to go to early practices or workouts or whatever.

That morning, he left, I got up, and he came back. He tried like 3 different ways to get from our place to campus, but all flooded/blocked. Just had a 1,000 yard stare in shock. Needless to say, the next few days were crazy.

 

[HawaiiClone]

Two summers before I started at ISU, but I saw a photo where a lot of a CyRide sign post was underwater. Searched, but couldn't find that photo today.

 

[jdoggivjc]

Meh... Davenport gets a "Flood of '93" flood every couple of years.

 

[KnappShack]

When I rode my bike as close to Hilton as I could get I thought

This is a great place for retail development!

 

[cyphoon]

I was at ISU in 93...

I was enrolled in a summer class (EE 330) and could not find a way to get to campus from our apartment on North Grand. From memory, I don't think class was officially canceled, but I learned the next day that the instructor couldn't get to campus either.

What a different time. You didn't know that the roads were flooded until you got in your car and tried to drive to class.

H

 

[Mr Janny]

I was in high school. I remember neighbors of ours had a field that was particularly bad, and took their boat out into it, and went waterskiing and tubing every day. I wanted to join them but my father explicitly forbade it. I remember him saying, "I know for a fact there are barbed wire fences crisscrossing that field. The water isn't THAT deep."

 

[coolerifyoudid]

I was in Friley for my second summer at ISU. Buddies and I went to Ledges to check out the damage.

While wading through chest deep water, we watched an 8 foor snake swim between us, turned towards my roommate, and then went underwater. I don't think I've seen terror in someone's eyes quite like that.

My wife likes to remind me that she was helping sandbag while I was out playing volleyball.

 

[Allikat]

We had to evacuate. My wife‘s work was shut down. With nothing much to do but bag sand and watch weather updates we got to spend some quality time together as newlyweds(ish).

Our daughter was born 9 months later.

 

[stateofmind]

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.

 

[NorthCyd]

I was in high school. I remember neighbors of ours had a field that was particularly bad, and took their boat out into it, and went waterskiing and tubing every day. I wanted to join them but my father explicitly forbade it. I remember him saying, "I know for a fact there are barbed wire fences crisscrossing that field. The water isn't THAT deep."

Not only the fences, but all the other crap flood waters pick up that float are sitting there right below the surface. Doing that stuff in flood water is Darwin Award worthy.

 

[Trice]

I have a hazy memory of WHO-TV broadcasting by candlelight in the studio because they lost power in the floods. I was watching on a portable black and white TV from my bedroom and turned it on in the middle of the night for updates. I think that was when I learned that the Des Moines Water Works had been flooded out.

I knew it was unlike anything I'd ever experienced when they closed the Mile Long Bridge over Saylorville because the lake was so high that water was was splashing up over the top of the bridge.

 

[Frak]

We were supposed to head down to Table Rock that weekend and had a legit hard time getting out of Ames. Duff was under water, Elwood under water, if you went west, the big valley west of Boone was under water. If you were anywhere near campus, you couldn't go anywhere. We ended up heading north and then west, then headed south trying to stick to high ground. It was a mess.

 

[2076]

I was in high school and lost all memories and trophies to that damn flood.

 

[AuH2O]

I was 16 and grew up near the Des Moines river in NW Iowa. When the floods receded my Dad told my friends and I to try fishing in all these small creeks in the area. These creeks were loaded with Northern Pike after the floods. We’d catch tons of those things over the next year or so.

 

[deadeyededric]

I remember watching this NBC Nightly News Broadcast.

 

[Gundog73]

I remember watching this NBC Nightly News Broadcast.

Damn, I was a Sophomore at ISU then. Hard to believe that was 30 years ago! I grew up in Western Illinois right on the Mississippi, we were hit bad over there too.