Stories from Illinois and
the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1993.
©
1996 Heritage Press/Great River Publishing. All rights reserved
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CHRONOLOGY of the Great Mississippi River
Flood of 1993
The Mississippi River Flood
of 1993 began on June 10, 1993, with 8" rainfalls in the Dakotas, Wisconsin
and Minnesota. The Upper Mississippi River was closed beginning with the first
200 miles on June 20th. It wasn't so much rain right on the Mississippi River,
but the fact that over 100 tributaries feeding the Mississippi River were also
flooded in wide-spread and unprecedented rains. The river did not reopen to
boat traffic until August 24, 1993. For more detail, please click on our
Flood Stats page.
Insight Feature Interview
© 1997, Pat
Middleton
Have no doubt that runaway flooding is a desperate matter
for families that live in the area affected by flooding or other natural river
disasters. The following interview with Gloria Bundy of Maeystown, Illinois,
reflects on the flooding of 1993 when the levees protecting the flood plains
of western Illinois gave way.
"What I remember most," Gloria told me
earnestly, "was driving to a spot along the bluff that looked over our acreage
below, in the low land along the river. I will never forget seeing only water
as far as the eye could see, except for here and there a rooftop. The
devastation was complete. Many homes and at least four towns were washed
completely away.
"And I remember the silence! A deep,
pervasive silence. No birds called, no frogs, no crickets. We later motored a
boat over our corn field. The depth finder said twelve feet. A woodpile poked
out of the water and I remember it was absolutely covered with these tiny
frogs. It was like a Biblical plague!
"Then, as the water dried up, the
mosquitoes came. There was an audible roar over the entire valley... it was
the hum of hordes of mosquitoes!
"The saddest part of the flood was
watching the evacuations during the four weeks before the flood hit here.
Families loaded all their belongings onto trucks. There were long lines of
trucks leaving the deserted homes and towns. And there was nothing to come
back to after water had inundated the houses for over two months. We had a
house down there. Two of the walls were just gone.
Gloria and I followed Maeystown
Road down the hill to Bluff Road and drove toward Valmeyer.
Gloria continued speaking, "The rail
road levees were under water. Any homes we see today were up to their porch
roofs in water during the flood. Many of the homes which were under water are
gone now. Some homes are being repaired with flood insurance dollars, some
were bought out and destroyed by the government.
"Most towns on the bottom land...
Valmeyer, Boxtown, Harrisonville, and Fults, were built about 1902 when the
railroads came through. The quarries shipped rock by rail. There was lots of
work in the quarries, and on the pipelines. It hadn't flooded down here in 99
years when these towns were built. But 1993 was the fourth devastating flood
that I've seen since 1943. The first was in 1943, then '44, then '47. Now it
has flooded in both '93 and '95. The lucky thing about all these floods, is
that no one was ever killed."
Valmeyer,
Illinois
At this moment, there are two Valmeyers. One is below the
hill and is just a fragment of its pre-flood community. Streets lined with
light poles lead nowhere; telephone poles and a few houses still stand in
1997. A car repair shop seems to be the only sign of life. No sign designates
this as "old" Valmeyer. Its citizens... 600 of the 900 who populated the old
town... have moved en mass to a brand new community up on the bluff. It has a
brand new $12 million dollar school. It is far to large for such a tiny
community, but not too big for the hopes of the neighborhood.
You may also be interested
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natural history...
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