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Event:  Flood of 1993
Brief Description:  From May through September of 1993, the worst flood in U.S. history occurred. Record flooding occurred across North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Illinois. Fifty flood deaths occurred, and damages approached $15 billion. Hundreds of levees failed along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Approximately 600 river forecast points in the midwestern United States were above flood stage at the same time. All of the rivers in Missouri had major or record crests, including the Mississippi River at St. Louis which crested at 49.58 feet on August 1, with water almost reaching the top of the steps of the Gateway Arch. The force of the Mississippi River caused a barge complex to break away from its moorings and slam into the Poplar Street Bridge. In Chesterfield Valley, the Monarch levee broke on July 30, closing an interstate, washing though an airport, jail and hundreds of businesses and homes. Several people were trapped on rooftops until helicopter crews could rescue them. The Missouri River at St. Charles reached a crest of 39.6 feet on August 2 and the flood forced 10,000 people out of their homes. The River Des Peres almost crested high enough to cause 51 propane tanks to break loose and explode, stopped only by an emergency wall of sandbags. Towns up and down the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers had to be evacuated. Thirty people died in Missouri and Illinois. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "The Crest; Three Days of Disaster; A Year of Recovery", July31, 1994 http://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/floods/papers/oh_2/great.htm]
Year:  1993
Decade:  1990 - 1999
Beginning Date:     May. 01, 1993
Ending Date:     Sep. 01, 1993

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