Wednesday, May. 11, 2011
Rapid City, S.D., 1972
Date: June 9-10, 1972
Significance: $165 million in damages; 238 dead
Holmes says: This was another flash-flood scenario. The moisture rose up out of the plains and poured down on Rapid City, near the Black Hills of South Dakota. Flash floods are especially dangerous when, like this one, they happen at night. That's when they kill a lot of people. People are woken from their sleep, they are disoriented, they get turned around and often don't realize they are in a lot of water until it is too late.