The flood of 1943 was among the worst ever

While people in much of Cedar County were battling grass fires, some of the people in the northern end of the county were more concerned about flooding.

Another major flood came cascading down the Missouri River in April 1943. This one was predicted to be as bad as the flood of 1881 which swept away the small settlement of Green Island across the river from Yankton, S.D.

Despite the fact that the country was embroiled in World War II, Congress charged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with devising a plan to tame the Missouri with a series of dams and reservoirs. One of these dams would be known as Gavins Point and its reservoir as Lewis and Clark Lake. But construction would have to wait until after the war.

During the winter of 1942-43, there had been a heavy snow accumulation in Montana and the Dakotas. The sudden arrival of warm weather in March resulted in a rapid snowmelt, which emptied into the Missouri River all at once. The Bismarck (N.D.) Tribune of April 1, 1943, reported that a wall of water carrying tons of ice began cascading down the river following the break up of a tremendous ice gorge north of that city. Heavy rains also caused flooding on tributary rivers and streams which added to the flow.

The crest of the flood reached Yankton and Cedar County later in the week. The Hartington Herald of April 8, 1943, reported that families living on low ground had been forced to evacuate. Water flowed over Highway 81 on the Nebraska side of the bridge and also over Homewood park near the mouth of the Bow Creek north of Wynot.

While high river bluffs kept damage comparatively low on the Nebraska side, thousands of acres of farmland were flooded on both sides of the river between Yankton and Sioux City, Iowa. “Hundreds of farmers in northeast Nebraska, saw their livestock washed down the muddy stream and their fields of spring wheat inundated beyond repair,“ said the Lincoln State Journal of April 12.

The Sioux Falls (S.D.) Argus-Leader of April 10 reported that floodwaters had swept over the banks of the Missouri between South Sioux City and Jackson during the night. About 50 square miles of farmland were inundated and more than 250 families were marooned. The Sioux City Journal of April 17, stated that the flood area extended as far north as Maskell.

The South Sioux City Mail describe the flood as the worst in the history of the city. Rescue crews and volunteers with boats quickly began working not only to rescue people but also to move chickens, livestock, and household goods to higher ground. Basements were flooded in the north part of South Sioux and a number of homes along the banks of the Missouri were partly submerged.

A bridge on Highway 20 west of South Sioux was undermined and traffic was stopped at that point. The Advocate, the Coleridge Blade and the Cedar County News reported that people had been driving to South Sioux to view the flood. Crystal Lake was about as far as they could get. It was reported that water was up to the bottom of the diving board at Likuwanta Beach and the board was normally 14 feet above the surface of Crystal Lake. For a few days there was concern that the river might revert to the channel it occupied when Lewis and Clark came upriver in 1804. At that time the river flowed through McCook, Crystal, and Brown’s Lakes.

But when the water receded, the river return to its current channel. Many acres of farmland would remain underwater well into May.

Because most of Sioux City was on higher ground than South Sioux, not as much damage was reported. Part of the new river road (now Gordon Drive) was under water as was the site of the new city auditorium (now part of Tyson) then under construction. A number of houses described as “shacks and shanties” along the river also were washed away.

In the Riverside neighborhood at least 20 homes were flooded. People living in the flooded areas were advised not to drink water from wells until they could be decontaminated. Typhoid shots also were strongly recommended.

As the crest of the flood rolled downstream, damage was reported in a number of smaller communities. Water covered an estimated 20,000 acres near Blair. In some places the water was eight miles wide and up to 10 feet deep. “The devastation from the flood staggers the imagination,” said the Blair Pilot-Tribune of April 15.

At Council Bluffs, Iowa, an 11,000-foot dike protecting the west edge of the city withstood the flood but a dike on the Nebraska side did not. The town of Carter Lake, Iowa, and Omaha’s new municipal airport (now Eppley Airfield) was covered with 6 feet of muddy water. Planes had to be diverted to airports as far away as Lincoln and Des Moines, Iowa.

A number of communities south of Omaha also were threatened.

Near Peru, the river had a five-mile spread and it was feared that the dikes protecting the town might give way.

Nearly every able-bodied man and woman joined in the battle to reinforce the dikes. The president of Peru State Teachers College offered to release from classes any male student and instructor who would volunteer to fight the flood.

Some of the female students also demanded to help and they went to work filling more than 60,000 sandbags. A troop of 100 Boy Scouts from Auburn also pitched in.

The river reached a record high at Nebraska City, but most of the damage occurred on the Iowa side where thousands of acres of farmland were submerged.

At Rulo, in the southeast corner of the state, farmers on bottom ground were evacuated.

In the southwestern Iowa town of Hamburg, which was 11 feet below the normal river level, more than 200 families had to be relocated to higher ground due to breaks in dikes several miles upriver.

The flood also caused significant damage in the state of Missouri before spilling into the Mississippi River north of St. Louis and contributing toward the worst flood on that river in more than a century.

Meanwhile, a Congressional committee had begun discussing plans to build additional dams on the Missouri below the existing dam at Fort Peck, Mont., in order to prevent future flood disasters.