The Great Flood of 1993

The Great Flood of 1993. Milepost 143.2. , The list of recorded floods on the Missouri River is long, but the most devastating in recent history was the Great Flood of 1993. The river at Jefferson City crested more than 15 feet above flood stage. Throughout the Midwest that year, two to four times the average amount of rain fell during late spring and early summer, and the land became saturated. In the end, the raging water claimed 52 lives (27 in Missouri) and caused $15 billion of destruction from Minnesota to Missouri. Fifteen thousand Missouri homes were damaged.

During a 7-inch rainstorm on July 7, 1993, the levee between the river and this spot was first breached. On July 15, the water covered U.S. Highway 63. The river receded for a week, but then rose again when heavy rains resumed.

On July 28, U.S. Highway 54 was closed temporarily when a 20,000-gallon propane tank broke from its mooring and began to leak. The tank drifted away from danger later that day and the highway reopened, but only briefly. The next day, floodwaters reached the highway, and Jefferson City was effectively isolated from this side of the river. For a time, the only place to cross the river between St. Louis and Kansas City was the bridge on Interstate 70 west of Columbia, creating excessively long commutes for people with homes on one side and workplaces on the other. The high water mark came on July 30. In all, Jefferson City was above flood stage for seven straight weeks, from July 2 to Aug. 19, and the flood peak of 38.6 feet easily topped the 1951 records of 34.2 feet.

Every Missouri River flood has its own character and story to tell. Before 1993, the largest known flood was probably in 1844, when exceptionally heavy rainfall along the lower Missouri filled the floodplain from bluff to bluff.

One news account of the day reported that "corn, which flourishes so much on the river bottoms, has been destroyed to an immense amount." Others who survived the 1844 flood complained that driftwood and debris settled into fields, and became cemented there by the river's copious supply of mud.

This spot was flooded in 1995 and 2013 and will most certainly be underwater again, the only question is when. The 2,340-mile-long Missouri is not only a Midwest river, but also a river of the Great Plains and northern Rocky Mountains. Its drainage spreads over 10 states and two Canadian provinces, and tributaries such as the Kansas, Platte and Yellowstone are themselves mighty rivers. When the next flood does come, we will marvel at its force, mourn over the destruction and then rebuilt. It is a story that has no end.