Understanding The 1993 MIdwest Flooding Disaster

            Understand the 93 flooding of the Mississippi (Description, cause, damage, recovery of this disaster).
             a) The most devastating flood in U.S. history occurred in the summer of 1993. The Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri, was above flood stage for 144 days between April 1 and September 30, 1993. Approximately 3 billion cubic meters of water overflowed from the river channel onto the floodplain downstream from St. Louis. All large midwestern streams flooded including the Mississippi, Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Des Moines and Wisconsin rivers. Seventeen thousand square miles of land were covered by floodwaters in a region covering all or parts of nine states (North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois). .
             b) There were four principal reasons why flooding was so extensive. 1. The region received higher than normal precipitation during the first half of 1993. Much of the area received over 150% of normal rainfall and parts of North Dakota, Kansas, and Iowa received more than double their typical rainfall. 2. Individual storms frequently dumped large volumes of precipitation that could not be accommodated by local streams. The map on the right shows rainfall in Iowa over a two-day period. Over six inches of rain fell in parts of southern Iowa. 3. The ground was saturated because of cooler than normal conditions during the previous year (less evaporation) so less rainfall were absorbed by soils and more ran-off into streams. 4. The river system had been altered over the previous century by the draining of riverine wetlands and the construction of levees. .
             c) Nearly fifty people died as a result of the flooding, 26,000 were evacuated and over 56,000 homes were damaged. Economic losses that are directly attributable to the flooding totaled $10-12 billion.