Flood of 1993 was a taste of floods to come
That's the common theme of recollection among those who endured the Flood of 1993. It was an unprecedented disaster, cresting at 25.10 feet on
There was nothing to compare it to. The worst flooding on the
"So in 1993, I can remember being called out in July by
Stoller starting working for Two Rivers five years after that, and her experience in 1993 was vital in fighting the even worse Flood of 2008 -- and the almost-as-disastrous floods that followed in 2013 and 2014, when the river reached 22.26 feet and 23.65 feet, respectively.
A never-ending rain
All floods are different, and the Flood of '93 can best be described as a flood from within, according to Stoller. It wasn't just the
It was a confluence of unusual weather circumstances that started becoming the norm during the 15 years following the flood. During the winter of 1992 and 1993, heavy snowfall blanketed the
The soil was saturated by June, but the rain didn't stop. Portions of east-central
"The water level kept coming up," said
Protecting downtown business
The odds a historic flood would work its way up to
Siekman and Colburn were prepared -- but just barely. They had moved their business from
"It was terrifying. We spent
The basement flooded up to the ceiling, but the first floor didn't. It was a minor miracle of volunteer sandbagging and vigilance from Colburn and Siekman, who never left the store. They slept there, ate there, coordinated flood fighting efforts from there.
By the time the river was lapping at
"We looked like we might be losing the battle, within half an hour, there was off-duty National Guardsman from
But maintaining a sandbag wall was only half the battle. The water that invaded the basement had to be pumped out faster than it was coming in, and the difference between the two was a metaphorical hair. The Camera Land owners credit
Diesel equipment kept the pumps running, but they had to be refilled. Priming the pumps was a tricky business, and they often wouldn't start when stopped.
"We did some pretty risky things that we shouldn't have," Siekman said.
Clean-up
Clean-up and flood mitigation couldn't start until the water went down. But that took months -- all the way into September. For those living outside the affected flood areas, it was hard to comprehend.
Stoller grinned as she recalled taking a phone call from a local insurance agent who had moved up from
"He said, 'I'll call back in a couple of weeks,' Stoller said.
The man did call back in a couple of weeks, and when Stoller told him the pumping stations were still underwater, he didn't believe her. He demanded directions to the station, which Stoller happily provided. A levee break had flooded 22,000 acres by
"I guess you were right," was his humbled response.
As those who suffered from the Flood of 2008 discovered, paperwork for
A case for dredging the river
Stoller has heard the same refrain over and over, for decades.
"If you don't want to get flooded, don't live in a flood plain," the familiar song goes.
But it wasn't always a flood plain. Life sprang up along the
The problem, Stoller said, is the silt that builds up along the bottom of the river. Heavy rains that have become the norm over the past decade, and increased urbanization has spawning concrete jungles that give the river even less room to overflow. Dredging by the
It's a recipe for disaster. And not just one disaster. One major flood after the other, turning what used to be high ground into a flood plain. It's easy to jeer at those who don't move away, but who's jeering the flash flood victims in
"Where can you live that isn't affected by disasters?" Stoller said.
Stoller knows how to mitigate the river, as do many who work in her field. But it's up to
"
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