The Great floods of '93

[MrGiggles]

I was still a couple months from being born.

I have seen the graffiti on the 83 bridge over Truman. It's incredible to imagine the lake being that high.

[BilletHead]

8 hours ago, Terrierman said:

I drove a motorboat over Highway 71 a few miles north of Nevada during that flood.  Trees were full of ants and mice and anything that didn't have gills.  So were the exposed parts - if any - of barns, houses and anything above water.  Had a souvenier pecan for a lot of years until the boy knocked it off the mantle and vacuumed it up.  Lived in Holts Summit at the time and officed in Jefferson City.  That washout of Highway 54 on the Callaway side of the river was a major pain.

Too funny Rick,

     Odie and I were out in the line truck north of town seeing how close the water was getting to the 161 KV transmission line. When coming back south the modot crews put the signs up on the southbound lanes right behind us. We would of been in trouble if we couldn't make it to the show up. Did you know the serviceman Gene Brown? He and I borrowed and paddled a john boat to get to the Schell City substation. The 4KV transformers were still working but the 69KV high side was dry and out of the water. Clinton brought in a temporary substation and I climbed a pole out of that boat. Pretty scary then but funny now.

 BilletHead

[tjm]

funny, I don't remember that years flood any more than other years, it floods here every year and the most recent is the most remembered. I think 2017 might have set some record though, at least got close to setting record. was bad here in '87 or ''88 too iirc.

[Brian Jones]

On 8/7/2018 at 7:30 AM, snagged in outlet 3 said:

Oh I remember.  Scoured Chesterfield Valley pretty good.  It has 3 times the businesses now.  Crazy!!!  Never build in the flood plain.

I have several memories from that summer.

My favorite.  We were coming back from St. Louis one afternoon and as we neared Arnold traffic on 55 south was backed up in all lanes and moving at a snail's pace.  As we crawled along, a blazer full of teenagers with what appeared to be a new driver comes barreling down the shoulder honking, screaming obscenities and gesturing to everyone they passed.  About a half hour later, as we neared Richardson Road, the blazer had been cut off by a very frustrated carpenter (white pants) who apparently had exhausted all of his patience.  He had the driver of the blazer out of the vehicle and was giving him a few lessons about respect while he buddies all sat in the blazer watching their chauffeur get his brains beat in.  I remember the bloody mouthed little turd screaming and crying and pleading with the passing motorists for someone to call the police on their "car phone" which at that time was still quite a luxury.  A short while after we passed, as the police were coming northbound and trying to cross over, the carpenter made his way down the shoulder to the Richardson Road exit and faded into obscurity. 

I also remember traveling through Chesterfield Valley shortly after 40/61 re opened and seeing a euc truck parked in a hole in the levee with enough room to park another one beside it.  

We also spent a few evenings down at Ste. Gen filling sandbags at the Valle high school parking lot. One of those evenings, my girlfriend (now wife) was interviewed by a reporter from the Post Dispatch and her interviewed was included in an article he did about the volunteers. 

My girlfriend (now wife) bought her first new car from Neal Chevrolet in Festus that summer.  Neal's lot was on the low ground and they had all of their inventory parked up and down Main Street as they tried to liquidate them.  

One final memory was K-SHE playing Jackyl's new hit single "When Will it Rain" about three times a day.  Seemed like every time there was a shift change, the new DJ would start their shift with that song.  

[skeeter]

Those "cattle rotting in the tree-tops" were bad enough but so were all the numerous caskets that bobbed to the surface and washed downstream where the Missouri had inundated River bottom cemeteries.  The Media reported it but, out of respect for the dead, did not publish too many pictures. 

   

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

13 hours ago, Brian Jones said:

 

One final memory was K-SHE playing Jackyl's new hit single "When Will it Rain" about three times a day.  Seemed like every time there was a shift change, the new DJ would start their shift with that song.  

I remember that.  

 

I grew up in St Louis city.  Went down by the brewery one day at the height of the flood.  Climbed one of the flood gates that close off the street from the river.  Maybe a foot from the top of the gate the water was quickly flowing.   I was stupid enough to climb on the top of the gate,  but smart enough to quickly get back down and get out.  Nothing happened,  but it's a memory I hope to never recreate.  

[Old plug]

I wa out here then. But wife was still working there during the week up there. If you lived in south St charles  you would never forget it. 40 ent under and that made the most awful traffic situation.   It actually flooded up there twice. Second time was because LOZ dumped on them.    

[oneshot]

Well I remember it and was surprised. I had seen many Floods before that were a result of Local Flooding.

The '93 Flood was more a result of Flooding upstream.

Was involved in many Evacuations and Sand Bagging had me scratching my Head. Sand Bag along the Levee only to have water coming through a creek behind the Sand Baggers. Then clean up afterwards.

I seen something once I had never seen. The Missouri River was dry because of a Ice Jam upstream. 

oneshot

[Al Agnew]

Spent a lot of time that summer filling sandbags in Ste. Genevieve.  The thing about that flood was not only the height but the duration...the low lying parts of town were flooded for more than a month.  If you lived away from the Mississippi and Missouri rivers it was no big deal unless you had to travel in the St. Louis area.  We live 15 miles away from Ste. Gen, and certainly didn't have to worry about flooding ourselves.

[Keiththom]

I remember it WELL, because I live on the river, Big River.  93 was bad but it pales in comparison to the flood of 2017 for us.  For those that live on the larger rivers, 93 was the big one. Between those two floods, I'm ready to move to a hilltop.  If anybody here would like to donate a couple hundred thousand to finance me a new place, you can contact me in a pm.