25 years ago this week, the Flood of '93

[tanaros]

Was the 'tendo okay?

Thankfully it survived.

 

[Northside Hawk]

The floods are largely caused by changes in farm fields. Prior to the 70s and more recent ag commodties booms, landowners didn't clear out ditches, brush and woods. Now many of those have been cleaned and straigtened to help with drainage and put more into production. The rivers especially the Mississippi are filling with sediment and don't handle as much water. What has changed is the velocity of water which the system can't handle. We are also getting 100 year rain events much more often than that. If I"m remembering right, the Des Moines River valley south of Des Moines experienced something like three 500 year events in 2 years and Red Rock was decimated.

Travel I 80 west of Davenport to IC. Decades ago those hills would have been pasture land. Now they are farming steep slopes. The speed that water travels has been really ramped up.

Changes in Urban areas affect flooding, too, especially when sewer and drainage systems aren't updated in tandem with urbanization.

The flash flood of 2011 was the last straw for Dubuque. They could ignore the lower middle class North end dwellers and ignore their flooded basements for decades but had to listen to the honchos who were revitalizing the old Warehouse District about a mile away with condos, restaurants, and clubs. Couldn't flood those folks out. So they updated what is called the Bee Branch in Dubuque that was obselite by a decade or two to put it conservatively. It has much improved the street flooding issues and flooded basements of the North and West sides of the city.

 

[HawkGold]

Changes in Urban areas affect flooding, too, especially when sewer and drainage systems aren't updated in tandem with urbanization.

The flash flood of 2011 was the last straw for Dubuque. They could ignore the lower middle class North end dwellers and ignore their flooded basements for decades but had to listen to the honchos who were revitalizing the old Warehouse District about a mile away with condos, restaurants, and clubs. Couldn't flood those folks out. So they updated what is called the Bee Branch in Dubuque that was obselite by a decade or two to put it conservatively. It has much improved the street flooding issues and flooded basements of the North and West sides of the city.

Very true. The IC and CR floods....ag related in conjunction with sloppy planning. When we moved here the real estate agent talked on and on about my flood questions. Those houses have never flooded. Water has never touched that bridge. In 94 it went over the bridge by 4 feet. It's 110 years old.

 

[Northside Hawk]

Very true. The IC and CR floods....ag related in conjunction with sloppy planning. When we moved here the real estate agent talked on and on about my flood questions. Those houses have never flooded. Water has never touched that bridge. In 94 it went over the bridge by 4 feet. It's 110 years old.

I almost got transferred to Cedar Rapids in 1998. My wife worked at Dubuque's Diamond Jo casino at the the time and wanted to stay. We looked at houses in both Cascade and Dyersville. I asked about flash floods in the area. The real estate agents assured us that the homes they were showing us were flood proof. They were proven to be wrong several times over. And flood insurance isn't cheap. I didn't get transferred and my spouse and I both changed careers and moved to her native Wisconsin in 2001. Haven't had a flood issue (as I knock on my kitchen table)

 

[Seth53]

1993 paled in comparison to 08

 

[okeefe4prez]

1993 paled in comparison to 08

False. '08 hammered IC and CR, but '93 crushed huge parts of several states.

 

[SCHawkeye2]

I lived in Fort Madison on the Mississippi. Flooding was so bad the road to the golf course was closed and they routed us through the Iowa State Penitentiary to high ground on the other side of the flooded area..