Comments on: It’s Raining, It’s Pouring: 6 Awful Floods

By: My Name

My Name — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:20:08 +0000

What about the Great Molasses Flood in Boston in 1919? A molasses flood, while not a natural disaster, would certainly be considered “awful.” Especially one involving a “40-foot wave of molasses!”

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 15:02:02 +0000

There was also the 1973 flood in Rapid City, SD. I remember stories from people who said there was absolutely no warning; there wasn’t much rain in Rapid City itself, but 15 inches of rain fell in a short time (6 hours?) elsewhere in the hills above the city, which all funneled through Rapid Creek, washing away thousands of homes along its path, killing 238 people and injuring 3,000-some others.

My family had a vacation to the Black Hills planned for the week following the flood, and I remember seeing all kinds of weird things; cars piled up like Matchbox toys in a toy box, a house sitting in the median of a four-lane highway… It was surreal.

By: Leizl

Leizl — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 02:43:55 +0000

Floods are not an uncommon occurrence here in the Philippines. The rainy season and the occasional typhoon makes for floods that could go as high as a man. I live in an area east of the capital, Manila, and since its in the foot of a mountain, it becomes a ‘catchbasin’ whenever it rains hard up in the mountain. So just imagine how many times a year we experience flooding…

Once or twice a year some parts of the Philippines experience more than the usual amount of flood and entire villages are eradicated because of it.

By: Tricia

Tricia — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 22:52:18 +0000

Stacy, I hope you get through this alright and aren’t in the heart of the flooding.

To Mattie, it’s mentioned in the beginning of the post that we all know about those and the 2004 tsunami so she didn’t write about them again.

By: Mattie

Mattie — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:49:01 +0000

No mention of the extensive flooding in New Orleans, Chalmette, and Southern Mississippi due to Hurricane Katrina? Lest we forget 80% of the damage (especially in New Orleans and Chalmette) was due to flooding NOT the hurricane itself.

By: RodneyB

RodneyB — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:22:35 +0000

I lived in South East Missouri during the 93 floods. The town of Commerce MO was wiped out as well.

I remember it clearly, there was ALOT of flooding…

By: EV

EV — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:19:08 +0000

I lived 35 miles south of Grand Forks during the Red River flood in ‘97. It really was amazing how much it affected the whold eastern half of the state. The college in my town let out early to open up the dorms for evacuees, shelters were everywhere — even towns of 500 people were making arrangements to house people.

It was absolutly devastating for those who lived up there. I feel terrible for those in Iowa right now.

By: MooCowHeff

MooCowHeff — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:39:05 +0000

I live in Cedar Rapids, and while my house is not affected by this, a lot of my friends and family are. I’ve never seen anything like this, this is something you only read about in history books or see in movies :(

By: the creature

the creature — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:25:29 +0000

i remember the Flood of ‘93. i was living in Ft. Madison, IA, right along the Mississippi River.

i am now living in Davenport, IA, still along the Mighty Miss (when will i learn?). the whole Quad Cities area is a mess actually. Cedar Rapids is much worse off though.

i’ve started on plans for an ark…
:)

By: Jen

Jen — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:51:55 +0000

I went to school in Johnstown for a bit… That flood to date is a really big deal there. My freshman year, the entire ‘american history’ class was really a few months learning only about the flood. Pretty interesting stuff though and if you’re ever in the area, there’s a cool cemetary of all those that died in the flood