Relentless flood swamped towns, turned roads into lakes 25 years ago this summer

Floodwaters swamped towns along the Mississippi River and its tributaries and turned roads and fields into lakes 25 years ago this summer.

It was a marathon of a flood, which first surfaced in March 1993 and stayed around all summer.

Its endurance taxed city, county, state and federal resources and volunteer efforts to battle it.

Major flooding, spurred on by heavy rains in the upper Midwest, occurred across a nine-state region, causing nearly $15 billion in damages, according to the National Weather Service.

In Missouri alone, flood damage totaled $3 billion, according to federal and state emergency management officials. More than 20 people died in the flood.

A temporary sandbag levee along Highway 74 at Dutchtown protects the town from floodwaters of the Diversion Channel during the 1993 Mississippi River flood that crested at 48.49 feet Aug. 8 at Cape Girardeau. This view looking south over Dutchtown shows Highway 25 in the center covered with water and continuing north through the town, shown in the right corner foreground.Southeast Missourian archive

Hundreds of levees failed along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.

Across the multistate region, tens of thousands of people were evacuated.

At least 10,000 homes were destroyed and 15 million acres of farmland flooded.

It ranks as one of the greatest natural disasters to hit the United States, according to the Weather Service.

In Southeast Missouri, muddy floodwaters invaded homes and businesses in Cape Girardeau and other river cities, and forced many people to flee to higher ground.

By July 13, 1993, with the river at 44.5 feet, occupants of these houses in the 1100 block of North Main Street had been forced to move from their homes. Many homes in the Red Star area of Cape Girardeau would later be bought out after another devastating flood in 1995.Fred Lynch

High crests were followed by drops and then higher crests.

�Miserable summer�

Ken Eftink, Cape Girardeau County floodplain and stormwater manager, said, �it was kind of a roller coaster in late spring or early summer. Then in July, it got really serious.� The river hit 46 feet on the Cape Girardeau river gauge, 14 feet above flood stage.

�It was kind of a long, miserable summer as the river came up and threatened us,� said Eftink, who back then was development services coordinator for the City of Cape Girardeau.

�People were trying to sandbag their homes and businesses, and we were blocking off roads,� he remembered.

Published July 14, 1993 -- Atop his former general store in Commerce, Missouri, David Canady looks out over what is Washington Street when the Mississippi River is much lower. Floodwaters have surrounded the town's post office, at left. Postal operations have been moved to the Commerce Baptist Church at the edge of town on Route E. Flooding has affected about half of the homes in Commerce.Fred Lynch

�It (the river) just kept coming higher and higher,� Eftink said. �It just kept getting worse and worse.�

The Mississippi River crested at 48 feet on the Cape Girardeau river gauge Aug. 8, but didn�t go down below flood stage until mid-October.

On Oct. 15, the river fell below flood stage after a record-breaking 124 consecutive days above that level.

Water-soaked levees failed. The great flood of 1993 also shut down barge traffic on the Mississippi River from early July until late August when the water began to recede.

Filling sandbags became a constant chore as government employees and residents worked to keep the flood at bay.

Published Aug. 6, 1993 -- Bryan Hartis of 1401 Water St., in the Red Star district, pumps water out of his sandbag-protected home Thursday, along with other members of the community who are fighting to keep the floodwaters from damaging their property.MELINA A. MARA ~ Southeast Missourian archive

Near Perryville, Missouri, a levee breach forced the evacuation of the small town of McBride and flooded thousands of acres of farmland.

In Southern Illinois, an earthen levee broke near Miller City in Alexander County in mid-July. The flood-swollen river poured through a wide gap, flooding farm land and forcing area residents to flee to higher ground.

Devastation

On the Missouri side, Cape Girardeau and the small towns of Commerce and Dutchtown were besieged by the flood.

In Cape Girardeau�s Red Star neighborhood on the north side and in the Meadowbrook and South Sprigg Street area on the south side, families and neighbors pitched in to stack sandbags and man pumps in an effort to hold back the water. For some, it was a losing effort.

Published Aug. 10, 1993 -- Coast Guard Petty Officer Mike Sanders, left, and Petty Officer Tommy Wright, both of the Chattanooga, Tennessee, Coast Guard Reserve Unit, escort Cape Girardeau County Health Department administrator Charlotte Craig and Howard Courtney, Cape County Health Department environmental sanitarian, Monday in Red Star District. They were checking with residents who might have health concerns because of flooding.DON SHRUBSHELL ~ Southeast Missourian archive

David LeGrand remembers the relentless summer tide that threatened his parents� home and adjacent transmission shop on Water Street in the Red Star neighborhood. He and his brothers fought the rising water with pumps and sandbags.

�It was hot,� he recalled of the summer flood fight.

LeGrand said they could only reach the house and shop by boat. David said his parents moved into a friend�s house for the duration of the flood.

Two years later, the area again flooded.

The LeGrand family later left the flood-prone neighborhood, relocating the business.

Published July 26, 1993 -- Mississippi River floodwaters approach the town of McBride, Missouri, situated about 6 miles north of Perryville, Missouri, Sunday afternoon. Already surrounded is the Gilster-Mary Lee plant. McBride was under water about an hour after the photo was taken.Fred Lynch

�I wasn�t going to go through that again,� LeGrand said.

The city�s flooded neighborhoods were those located north and south of the concrete floodwall. The wall kept the downtown dry.

Throughout the summer of 1993, emergency management officials met daily, Eftink remembered.

�The community as a whole was at great risk,� he said. The city was at risk of losing its water intake structure, Eftink said. At that time, the city relied on river water. Now, it uses well water.

Flooding also affected the sewer plant.

Published July 26, 1993 -- Mississippi River floodwaters flow through a 1,000-foot breach in the Bois Brule levee, to the left, looking north, about 8 miles from McBride, Missouri, and 11 miles south of the Chester (Illinois) Bridge, Sunday afternoon. About 28,000 acres are affected.Fred Lynch

In 1993, the plant was located in a south-side, flood-prone area near the river. City workers had to boat in and out of the plant.

While the plant did not flood, �it wasn�t functioning,� Eftink recalled. �Most all the wastewater was just bypassing the plant and going directly into the river.�

Today, the city has a new sewer plant, which was built in another area of the city and is on higher ground to keep it safe from flooding.

During the �93 flood, AmerenUE�s south-side substation near the Diversion Channel flooded, causing a brief power outage for 42,000 customers in Cape Girardeau, Kelso, Scott City and Chaffee.

By late July, 120 residences had been affected by the flooding, Eftink told the Southeast Missourian at the time. In some cases, yards were flooded. In others, houses were flooded.

At Dutchtown in Cape Girardeau County, an estimated 500,000 sandbags were filled to build a half-mile levee atop Highway 74 to protect the community from the flooding Diversion Channel, which connects to the Mississippi River.

In Cape Girardeau County alone, more than 21,000 acres of farmland spent most of the summer under water.

At the same time, many area farmers saw their crops wither from a drought, Eftink said.

After high waters finally receded, Cape Girardeau County officials estimated that some 1 million sandbags were used in the flood fight.

Flood buyouts

The 1993 flood and another two years later prompted Cape Girardeau city officials to embrace the federal flood buyout program, he said.

With a cost-share between federal, state and local governments as well as charitable not-for-profit organizations, the City of Cape Girardeau eventually bought more than 100 flood-affected properties at a cost of more than $2.7 million.

The structures were demolished and the land was deed restricted for use as open space, according to a 2002 joint report from Federal Emergency Management and the Missouri State Emergency Management agencies.

The move has lessened damage from succeeding floods, Eftink said.

In Commerce, Missouri, where nearly all of the houses sat in a floodplain, the devastating flood led to demands for a federal flood buyout that proved controversial to some residents.

At the time, about 65 families lived in the Scott County town.

Jeff Hopper�s home was reachable only by boat. The Southeast Missourian reported in its July 11, 1993, edition more rain was forecast along the upper Mississippi River.

�Every drop of it runs off, it�s so water-logged up there,� he was quoted as saying. �It is going to wipe out this whole town.�

But the town survived, although many people and businesses moved away.

The town board narrowly rejected a flood buyout plan, but voters later elected new board members who approved the plan.

A federal buyout removed 45 to 50 properties at a cost of about $1.7 million, the Southeast Missourian reported.

In 2015, the population was estimated at 44, according to the 2017-2018 state manual.

Today, the river still frequently floods parts of Southeast Missouri.

�Since 2000, we have had seven major floods,� Eftink said.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers defines major floods as those cresting at 42 feet or higher on the Cape Girardeau river gauge, he said. Flood stage is 32 feet.

Recent floods have crested and receded much sooner than was the case in 1993, Eftink said.

Twenty-five years ago, the flooding dragged on and on. For those like LeGrand who lived through it, memories of that flood remain strong.

�It was just a nightmare,� he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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