Wednesday, May. 11, 2011
Mississippi River, 1993
Date: May-October 1993
Significance: With more than $15 billion in damages, the flood was the second costliest on record; 50 flood-related deaths
Holmes says: In St. Louis, Missouri, the waters stayed at flood stage for 81 consecutive days. This is the flood that came and stayed forever. That's the thing that sticks in my mind — that it lasted such a long time. I was young in my career at that point — I had been working as a hydrologist for only seven or eight years. I was out working on that flood for what seemed like forever.