Floods in the United States: Part Two

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Rapid City, South Dakota, June 9, 1972 The Mayor, Donald V. Barnett phoned the fire departments and the police and instructed them to start alerting the people of the danger of a flash flood. A few minutes late, he changed his orders from “alert” to “evacuate.” A man who lived about 18 miles northwest of the city had telephoned and reported seeing a “solid wall of water” heading down Rapid Creek. He said, "Mr. Mayor, it looks to me like you’ve got maybe twenty minutes.” Too late to warn all the people. At 10:45 a 5-foot wall of water came down through the city, wiping out everything in its path. Four blocks wide and 200 blocks long, GONE. Twelve hundred houses, GONE and twice that number damaged. One hundred stores and factories, GONE. Five thousand automobiles wrecked. Over $100 million in lost property and the tragic loss of 247 lives. The city did not delay on the clean-up. Heavy equipment hauled away the wreckage at the rate of 275 truck loads every hour. The traces of the flash flood were erased quickly, except in the minds of those who had experienced it. Did you know about this terrible flood?