The Mississippi River Flood of 1993

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The Mississippi River Flood of 1993

• juliana loli

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Mississippi River Flood 0f 1993

• One of the most severe floods ever recorded in
  U.S. history within the Mississippi River Valley
• Flooding in the Upper Mississippi Basin began in
  early June and continued through mid August
• Economic Damages averaged approximately 20
  billion
• 50,000 homes were damaged or destroyed
• 38 people lost their lives

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• The Mississippi River is divided into two parts
• The Upper Mississippi flows from its source in
  the north, to the southern area of Illinois
• The Lower Mississippi flows from southern
  Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico
• Flooding affected the Upper Mississippi because
  south of Illinois, the Lower Mississippi, has
  wider river channels
• Flooding was at its peak where waters of the
  Missouri River entered the Mississippi River just
  north of St. Louis the width of the rivers at
  their confluence expanded to over 20 miles.

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Discharge increase near St. Louis do to the
addition of Missouri River flow
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• The larger streams of the mid-West, including the
  Mississippi, Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Des
  Moines and Wisconsin Rivers, flooded
• Nine states were affected -
• North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas,
  Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois
• 17,000 square miles of flood coverage

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Satellite image of Mississippi, Illinois and
Missouri River at the time of the flood
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Same satellite location in 2002
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• Causes of this monuental flood
• Unusually high precipitation during the months of
  June and July, particularly in Iowa, Missouri and
  Kansas. It was the wettest June and July since
  1895.
• These rainfalls infiltrated soils that had been
  fully saturated by twice as normal early spring
  precipitation
• Precipitation totaled over 20 inches from January
  July 93. There were twelve major storms with
  rainfalls of 6 to 12 inches
• A high pressure system in the Southeast forced
  Gulf air to move north, hitting cool Northwest
  air. It stalled right there, continuing to
  produce massive rainfalls.  
• In all, 150 primary and secondary levees failed
  during the summer.

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Results

• Approx 8 million acres of farmland were inundated
  
• More than 26.5 million sandbags ( 927 million
  pounds of sand )were used in towns along the
  Mississippi River
• Flooded water treatment plant of Iowa became
  contaminated and 250,000 people lost their
  drinking supply for 12 days
• 500 million in road damage
• Long duration of flooding lasted over several
  months had a major affect on agricultural lands
  and businesses

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