Blog

Jul 10, 2023

The Great Flood of '93 hit the county 30 years ago

Boats are docked on a flooded Truman Boulevard in Crystal City, with a view of the First Baptist Church of Festus. The Mississippi River at St. Louis first went over flood stage in April and crested

Boats are docked on a flooded Truman Boulevard in Crystal City, with a view of the First Baptist Church of Festus.

The Mississippi River at St. Louis first went over flood stage in April and crested on Aug. 1 at almost 49.6 feet, just shy of 20 feet over flood stage. It finally dropped back below flood stage on Oct. 7.

Record rain and snowfall in the Mississippi River and Missouri River watersheds in the fall of 1992 set the stage for what has come to be known as the Great Flood of 1993.

From May through September that year, record flood levels were seen across Missouri and Illinois, as well as Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and the Dakotas. A federal emergency was declared in parts of all nine states as an estimated 17 million acres were inundated; 50,000 homes damaged or destroyed; and hundreds of agricultural levees breached, according to a 1996 report the National Weather Service published.

The Mississippi River at St. Louis first went over flood stage in April and crested on Aug. 1 at almost 49.6 feet, just shy of 20 feet over flood stage. It finally dropped back below flood stage on Oct. 7. Record rain and snowfall in the Mississippi River and Missouri River watersheds in the fall of 1992 set the stage for what has come to be known as the Great Flood of 1993.

These photos are courtesy of Jeff Counts, Festus Library, Arnold Historical Society, Crystal City Historical Society, Kimmswick Historical Society and Eureka Historical Society.

The report said damage estimates topped $15 billion, and more than 50 deaths were associated with the flood.

Here in Jefferson County, the water began creeping up in the spring and was speeded up by heavier-than-normal rains across the area through July.

The Meramec and Mississippi rivers first rose above flood stage in April and didn’t recede for more than 100 days, the National Weather Service reported.

Water caused traffic headaches as roadways went underwater in Arnold, Barnhart, Kimmswick, Herculaneum, Byrnes Mill, De Soto, Festus and Crystal City, as well as in many unincorporated areas of the county.

Dozens of homes and businesses were flooded and hundreds more threatened with rising waters.

Across the state, more than 100 sewage treatment plants sustained damage, and millions of gallons of raw or incompletely treated sewage flowed into the state’s rivers daily, according to the Army National Guard’s 1995 publication titled The Great Flood of 1993.

Of the 32,000 miles of paved highway in Missouri, 500 were destroyed in the flood, and an additional 2,000 miles were covered by water for varying periods. The National Guard report said additional road damage was caused by the need to reroute traffic around water obstacles, with roads built to accommodate a light rural traffic flow seeing traffic far beyond their engineered capacities.

The recreation and tourism industry in Missouri suffered, with 75 miles of the Katy Trail system washed out and routes into tourist areas affected by road closures. In Jefferson County, the town of Kimmswick, which derives a large portion of its annual income from tourism, saw business owners pack up and leave during the flood.

The Missouri Tourism Commission initiated a nationwide advertising campaign to counter the impression of complete devastation.

Local law enforcement agencies; first responders; city and county governments; churches and civic groups; students; and other volunteers came together to try to sandbag and take other steps to minimize the damage, as well as to prevent health problems associated with standing water, to control traffic and then to clean up once the waters receded.

In this week's paper, the Leader recounts some of their efforts and revisits their memories of one of the worst floods in Missouri history.

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