calebkenney

[calebkenney]

Go Maher Restoration Scholarship Contest 2022

The U.S disaster I’m going to talk about in this article is the ‘Great Flood of 1993’, otherwise known as the 1993 Midwest Flood. As the name applies, the 1993 Midwest flood was a massive, costly flood that impacted the entire Midwest region, which included nine states. Many believe it is the largest flood to occur in the United States. The main cause of the flooding was an unusual amount of continual record setting rainfall in many states. Another major factor to the severity of the flooding was that just a year before, fields in the midwest were already saturated from a year of wet weather.

During peak rainfall months, states such as Minnesota and Kansas experienced over 24 inches of rain. Iowa recorded having an unprecedented amount of rainfall, reaching up to 38 inches. According to the National Weather Service, Lee W. Larson states that many midwestern states “experienced rain on 20 days or more in July, compared to an average of 8-9 days with rain.” This overflow of rain which lasted during June, July, and August caused runoffs into the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. By late July, water levels peaked in Missouri River reaching nearly 49 feet. Additionally, in early August, the Mississippi River similarly reached its crest at around 50 feet. The ground simply couldn’t hold the huge amounts of rainfall that was being poured over the nine states.

The flooding created unbearable living conditions as fields became bodies of water and food crops and communities were destroyed. Tens of thousands of people in midwestern states had to evacuate their collapsing homes, with many dying in the process. In total, it’s estimated that around 50 people died as a result of the flood. Since so much damage was done across the entire region, the costs for recovery was up to twenty billion dollars. The Great flood of 1993 represented an extremely precarious period of U.S history. It’s likely that America won’t experience a flood of its magnitude again for a very long time.

Sources: Larson, L. W. (1993). “The Great Midwest Flood of 1993,” Natural Disaster Survey Report, National Weather Service, Kansas City, Missouri.

Scholarship link: