A reporter’s recollection of the 1993 flood
Gregg Ochoa, MoDOT senior communications specialist
Some events are etched in your memory: Secretariat winning the Belmont Stakes by 31-lengths or the space shuttle Challenger explosion. For me, it was the Flood of 1993.
From the time it started in early March until well into fall, the record rainfall caused an unprecedented number of highway and bridge closings in every Missouri county but two (Camden and Christian). Approximately 250 routes were closed at the same time and nearly 1,000 highway sections were flooded.
Much of the Show-Me State was under water.
I got a first-person view of the events of that summer 25 years ago. I was the editor of the Lincoln County Journal located in Troy. It was Saturday, July 3 and I got a call from a reader who said he had some great photos of the damaged Pin Oak Levee. The levee was located near Mississippi Lock and Dam 25 in Winfield.
I asked him to meet me at the newspaper office.
We had put the paper “to bed” on Friday. The long holiday weekend was on the horizon.
I had written a story that quoted the Corps of Engineers predicting a crest just six-tenths of a foot below the record of 1973. In that story, I also quoted some local residents who remembered the 1973 flood.
The deadlines at a weekly newspaper are not kind. Breaking news is often reported much after the fact.
But this was rapidly becoming a bigger story.
My reporter’s adrenaline kicked in on my drive to the office. The man who called had some color Polaroid photos. I picked the best two, got his name for a photo credit and some information for a caption. I knew there was no room or time to write a lengthy story. I figured if I could swap out a photo, the front page would be “current.” (Plus, I did not want to create too much last-minute work for the composing room.)
I called our press room some 60 miles away in Louisiana, Missouri and was surprised when someone picked up the phone. I asked if the paper was printed. I was told that some sections were done, but they were holding the “A Section” for an advertising change. The paper was to be delivered Sunday night. I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get to say, “Stop the press,” but I was lucky in that it had not started running.
Later that night, a portion of the levee failed.
I would learn that the force of the water knocked a 400-foot hole through the levee. The eastern edge of Winfield was flooded. At least 150 people fled their homes. Approximately 4,000 acres of farmland was covered with water.
For the next three months, the flood was the dominant story. More levees broke and 1,100 homes throughout Lincoln County suffered flood damage. At the flood’s peak, 30 percent of the county’s farmland was underwater. Most of the county’s roads were covered.
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During the months ahead I got to know Chuck Freidrichs, the Lincoln County engineer and buyout coordinator. He would help explain the complicated federal buyout process. The county later received an award from the Missouri Association of Counties for its innovative handling of the buyout program.
Freidrichs thought demolishing a flood-damaged home and taking the debris to a landfill was wasteful. He created a program to recycle the material. As damaged houses were demolished, items were sorted as reusable and non-usable. The reusable items were sold to people who wanted to rebuild or repair.
The program raised about $500,000 and paid for the demolition costs.
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The flood was a family affair. While working for the Department of Social Services, my wife staffed a temporary shelter in the Winfield High School gym. She was one of several workers taking applications for emergency food stamps and other assistance.
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I rode on a Blackhawk helicopter with former Gov. Mel Carnahan and his top aide Chris Sifford to view the flooding from the air. They don’t tell you that the doors are open during the flight. Seven years later in October, Carnahan and Sifford would both die in a plane crash that would shake the political landscape.
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Alice Reimers owned Alice’s Restaurant on Highway 79 in Winfield. The business was spared but her home was not. One day we boarded a johnboat and went to the old house where she had lived for 15 years. All we could see was the top of the roof.
She cried.
Her home was first buyout in Lincoln County. On July 26, 1994, she signed her flood damaged home over to the county. Later, she moved to a new home in the Darla Estates Subdivision in Winfield. It was on higher ground.
“I’m happy. I could have ended up with nothing,” she told me. I think she sold her restaurant a few years later. In all, 323 homes were bought out by Lincoln County.
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The 1993 flood was devastating, but also brought the community together. For me, the events and the people I met—and their stories—will not be forgotten.