40 years ago last night, a wall of water rolled through Rapid City, SD and wiped out neighborhoods and a thriving downtown. Over 200 died, thousands were injured or lost their homes, or both.
June 9, 1972
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| Yesterday I hiked up to the "M"- indicating South Dakota School of Mines. Remember the billboard in this picture..... |
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| View east from the top- The white in the foreground is the "M" at my feet. |
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| At midway and in the middle of nowhere? |
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Small, very small. |
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| Serene, placid. And forty years ago last night, this small stream would have covered the bridge in the upper right hand corner. More likely, it took out the bridge with the debris it collected in the rush downstream. The rush took out much of Baken Park area, houses floated down Jackson Blvd. http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcflood1972/show/ |
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| The water came six feet up on the grain elevators. They are 1/4 mile from the stream. |
" . . . I was with one crew on the east side of town near Roosevelt Park. The firemen and several men from the South Dakota National Guard were using ropes and ladders to save the folks from the raging (and very cold) waters. These courageous actions saved dozens of victims from the flooding waters that also contained debris, parts of homes, mobile homes, and other materials that clogged the bridges. The diverted waters roared into neighborhoods far distant from the creek. Many bridges broke apart. The roar of the noise can only be compared to a terrible train wreck .
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| The Hotel Alex Johnson was the only building not demolished in downtown Rapid City after the flood surged through. |
Today, the city is a model of intelligent response to a natural disaster. The downtown is thriving and there is no residential building in the flood plain.
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| Saturday traffic.... |
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| Hanging out before a bike ride. |
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| Standing in long lines for a Nathan's Hot dog. |
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| Families hanging out at an outdoor concert at the new downtown plaza. Downtown pics? drive-by shootings out of the window of my car. ... |
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| What a terrific park! |
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| It's Canyon Lake Park. |
". . . It was a night of absolute terror . . . The Police Department alerted me about 6:30 that the United States Weather Service had alerted the Police Department about the dangers from potentially high waters on Rapid Creek during the next several hours . . . I called my best advisor, Mr. Leonard Swanson, the City Public Works Director, and we met at City Hall. Heavy rains were falling, and Mr. Swanson and I drove to Canyon Lake Park where a city worker and his family lived in the park caretaker’s home, immediately below the dam. Swanny ordered the caretaker, a Parks Department employee, to immediately take his family, leave their evening meal on the table, and get out of the park. The entire family survived the flood. Not a trace of the home (it was city property) or the contents was ever found. The Canyon Lake Dam failed a few hours later . . ."
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| Dark Canyon, today |
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| When they built Pactola Dam upstream of Canyon Lake and Rapid City, they assumed there would never be another flood. |
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| Fabulous dam |
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| Today, downstream is a picture of peace and tranquility |
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| Forty years ago, water poured over the spillway at the right. |
In the life of many cities built along waterways, floods happen. We rely on dams and in 1972, one failed. The Pactola dam held but Canyon Lake could not.
The Rapid City Flood of 1972 was one of the deadliest floods in U.S. history. More than 200 people lost their lives in a period of hours on the night of June 9-10, 1972.
" . . . I stopped at the courthouse about 7:00 (am) after I was able to drive the city car from the north side of the creek over a partially destroyed bridge to the south side of the creek. The look on the faces of the folks who were reporting missing family members is still framed in my memory. They feared the absolute worst but were praying for miracles. Many broke down in the temporary offices with worry and fear. Words cannot define this fear and suffering . . . "
Life goes from living good along a inviting river to a storm of death and destruction.
In people's lives, floods happen-
People die, or move, or betray us.
We lose our health, our money, our relationships.
We hit a deer, we fall out of a tree,we get cancer.
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| Can we insure against heart ache? Against being human? |
We wake up in the morning and view the wreckage of something we couldn't image or hadn't prepared for. We built our dams- heatlthy bank account, secure job, decent marriage, kids who appear to be doing well, a Christian faith that promised God's blessings. And just like physical dams, the saftey pecautions we create can break.
Sorrows flow through a city, through a life, through a heart.
What do we do? Do we rebuild- trust the foundations or start over if we must. Are we resilient? Do we recognize our mistakes and forgive ourselves?
Yesterday after a lovely day of hiking, errands and a drive through the Hills taking pictures on my phone.... the sky looked like this at dinner time.
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| Storm's coming. |
And as I wrote this, the rains pounded on my roof. Rain coming down, hard. I don't fear a flood but I know better than to think one won't happen. Maybe it won't be water washing my house away but floods come.
Bad stuff happens- we live in a world that is no longer the paradise God intended for us
and we suffer pain and sickness and loss.
And just before the rains really came last night, the sky was darkened, the light changed..... and a rainbow appeared.
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| Our symbol of hope, a future, a tomorrow- after the storm. |
After the Flood, God promised the righteous remnant- Noah and his family, the seed of a people for God, "I'll never flood the earth again". God didn't promise - " I'll never let bad things happen ...."
Rapid City is justifiably proud of their town's recovery. They have a 12 mile greenway with parks, bike trails and recreation facilites all along the Rapid Creek. They guard against developement in the flood plain and the city is a renewed, probably more attractive and liveable place than in 1972.
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| ....but my house and land were under the rainbow. A double rainbow. |
I had my flood- my husband died, way too early, way too young.
And my life was tossed in waves of grief and uncertainity.
But God promises to provide for widows.
God promises to redeem the pain.
God promises He'll never leave me or forsake me.
And God is faithful to His promises.
And life, after the flood, is good.
Awesome. Pictures are gorgeous. Well said, O Sage of the Black Hills!
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