Remember the Great Flood of 1993?---

[tblue37]

Most of the continental US comprises the flood plain for the Mississippi River and its tributaries (which include other mighty waters, like the Missouri River). People built heavily along these rivers, and the government built dikes and dams to control flooding to protect the population and business sites occupying the nearest flood plains of the rivers.

But by constraining the water flow upriver and all along the river, these flood control structures simply ensured that the speed, depth, and raging power of the flood waters would be even more catastrophic at the lower reaches of the river.

I am surprised no one has mentioned the aptly named "Great Flood of 1993." The link below is to a NASA page with before and after images of the rivers, although the after image is not from peak flood, since the waters had receded a bit when it was taken:

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=5422

The pinkish areas in the image show places scarred by flooding, so you can get a sense of how far flooding reached even though in the image the water has receded from those areas.

Information from that NASA page:

During the first half of 1993, the U.S. Midwest experienced unusually heavy rains. Much of the United States in the upper reaches of the Mississippi River drainage basin received more than 1.5 times their average rainfall in the first six months of the year, and parts of North Dakota, Iowa, and Kansas experienced more than double. The rains often arrived in very intense storms. Floods overwhelmed the elaborate system of dykes and other water control structures in the Mississippi River basin, leading to the greatest flood ever recorded on the Upper Mississippi. In St. Louis, the Mississippi remained above flood stage for 144 days between April 1 and September 30, 1993.

This image pair shows the area around St. Louis, Missouri, in August 1991 and 1993. The 1993 image was captured slightly after the peak water levels in this part of the Mississippi River. Flood waters had started to recede, but remained well above normal. This false-color image was created by combining infrared, near infrared, and green wavelengths of light observed by the Thematic Mapper (TM) instrument onboard the Landsat 5 satellite (TM bands 5, 4, and 2 respectively). Water appears dark blue, healthy vegetation is green, bare fields and freshly exposed soil are pink, and concrete is grey. The scale of flooding in the river basins of the Illinois, Missouri, and Mississippi Rivers in 1993 is immense. The deep pink scars in the 1993 image show where flood waters have drawn back to reveal the scoured land.

snip

Google 1993 flood to find innumerable images if the devastation from that flood.

[BigmanPigman]

1. I remember flying across the country and looking down from the plane.

It was unbelievable! It gave me a good perspective of the extent of the damage and the force of nature.

[benld74]

2. Our 23 yr old born during event

Worked downtown STL at the time. Took bus to near the riverfront. The Admiral, floating casino at that time, was LEVEL with the Eads Bridge!!

Massive amounts of water came down Ole man river. Unreal.
BUT
Chesterfield bottoms totally flooded, 8-12 feet deep. After water receded, they had levee built to withstand 500 year flood,
Today the amount of $$$$ spent in the stores which line the bottoms now is unreal as well.
Next event? But it will cost MUCH more insurance wise to cash them out