CAPE WADED THROUGH SHARE OF HIGH WATER BEFORE AND AFTER WALL

With the rising Mississippi River determined to set a record, the standard of comparing floods will have to be revised. For 20 years the standard has been the flood of 1973.

That year the Mississippi teased Cape Girardeans with a February flood that hit 32.1 feet, just over the 32-foot flood stage here. But that was just a warning.

Beginning late in February, the river began inching up again, and by March 10 the river stage at Cape Girardeau was 33.2 feet. It would not go below flood stage here until June 15.

The Mississippi crested May 1 at 45.6 feet. The crest was the fourth time that spring that the river crested at 40 feet or more here.

At the time, the Army Corps of Engineers estimated that the discharge of water past Cape Girardeau at the crest was 900,000 cubic feet per second (fps). That was the third largest volume on record to pass the city. It was exceeded only by the great flood of July 4, 1844 when there were no levees to contain the river with a discharge of 1.45 million cubic fps, and by the flood of 1927, with a discharge rate of 1.054 million cubic fps.

By the end of May, the Mississippi made a slow, steady retreat. But while floodfighters continued a careful watch of levees, a second disaster struck a flash flood.

At the Municipal Airport in Scott County, 9.47 inches of rain were recorded from 10 p.m. May 26, a Saturday, to 4 a.m. May 27. Seven inches of rain hit Cape Girardeau from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. Creeks and drainage ditches quickly overflowed, causing severe flash flooding throughout the city.

Hardest hit of the residential areas here was Golladay Addition along Walker Creek north of Broadway. There, 50 homes were flooded; in some instances the water was 5 feet deep in houses.

Damage to businesses was widespread, with at least 25 businesses along Kingshighway south of Broadway and on adjoining or nearby streets of Themis, Christine, Spring, Plaza Way, Linda and others suffering considerable damage.

Not only did Cape Girardeau suffer, but the flash flood inundated approximately 20,000 acres of farmland in Cape Girardeau County that was not already under water from the Mississippi River. It washed away what crops had been planted.

At least 10 deaths were reported in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois as a result of the devastating flash floods that caught residents by surprise. Deaths occurred near Leopold, Scott City, and Eddyville in Southern Illinois.

For decades before 1973, all floods were judged by the 1844 flood, which reached a stage of 42.53 feet on the Cape Girardeau gauge, according to the Army Corps of Engineers; local records put the stage July 4 of that year at 42.19.

The discrepancy between the two stages resurfaced in 1943, when the river topped out here at 42.3 feet on May 27, slightly higher than the 1844 mark by local records but not by Corps records. Some have called the 1943 rise an "artificial" flood.

Along the Aldrich levee on the Illinois side north of Wolf Lake, a valiant fight was waged to hold back the river. But a crevasse formed and enlarged, flooding some 57,420 acres south to Gale and almost wiping out Ware and McClure. This huge wall of water backed up behind the front-line levee near Gale.

With the water trapped, the Corps of Engineers decided to blast the levee two miles south of Cape Girardeau, allowing the impounded water to flow back into the Mississippi. This was done in the afternoon, and that night unidentified persons also blasted the Gale levee farther south.

As the massive amount of water poured back into the river, the floodwaters backed up toward Cape Girardeau. The river here rose 2.2 feet in 24 hours and 1 foot in six hours as weary floodworkers battled to save the utilities plant and other buildings. All of downtown Cape Girardeau was flooded when the river rose to 42.3 feet.

Without a floodwall to protect the downtown business district, flooding was an almost annual springtime event. Just as the flood of 1943 inundated the area, smaller floods were capable of wreaking heavy damage to the downtown.

Historians note that the worst floods occurring before the floodwall was dedicated in 1964 happened in 1927 (39.53 feet); 1943 (42.3); 1944 (40.7); 1947 (41.88); and 1951 (41.8). During the 1943, 1947 and 1951 floods, water reached the intersection of Spanish and Independence. Boating along Main and Independence was a common sight.

Another notable flood in Cape Girardeau was that of 1937. Both the Mississippi and Ohio rivers flooded at the same time early that year, as did the St. Francis and Black rivers. While Cape Girardeau did not suffer greatly from the flood itself, it played an important role during the emergency.

With the Red Cross and Salvation Army taking the lead, refugees were brought to Cape Girardeau from throughout the district. Three-hundred were brought from Charleston alone and were housed in the basement of the First Baptist Church on Broadway and in the Community Clubhouse building at Capaha Park. Others were quartered in the Wolf Building on Main Street and at the Salvation Army hall.

As the devastation continued, other buildings were pressed into service along Main Street, and old Houck Field House was also used.