Levees & Sandbags

The Flood of 93' in the Midwest was one of the most devastating and costly floods ever. I will be focusing in on what happened in Des Moines, Iowa. Here is an interview of my parents about this happening.

How high did the water in rivers reach?

I don't know exactly but it was enough to go over the spillway at Saylorville Lake. I know that a lot of places on bigger rivers than the Des Moines River had worse flooding than us.

Did you lose water and electricity during the flood?

We lost water for about ten days and we didn't lose electricity. West Des Moines didn't lose water because their treatment center didn't flood so I remember us being in West Des Moines a lot with relatives and eating our suppers at Hyvee.

Were there any food banks and shelters open for people with destroyed homes?

I bet that there were more than usual open. The one that I remember is that Camp Dodge opened for shower facilities.

What was destroyed during this flood?

Principal Park was all flooded except for the pitchers mound. Valley Junction also flooded because there were no levees or floodgates.

Did any companies step up and provide any services?

After people had realized that we had no water they were bringing in tanker trucks full of water and they would all leave empty. Annheiser Busch in Missouri started bottling water in their cans instead of alchohol. Some work places also relaxed their dresscode because people couldn't get some of their clothes clean.

What was the worst part of this flood?

The worst part for us was not being able to flush a toilet or wash your hands or cook.(not bad in this case) It was just very strange that nothing really worked.

I have concluded that we were very lucky to not have anything destroyed in Waukee and I'm glad that most of Des Moines has recovered. I would not have survived in the conditions that some people had to. My perspective did not change too much because I had heard all of my Mom's stories about this topic before. That is what made me choose this as a topic because I've heard stories but now I have more primary sources.


Ian C.