When you farm ground next to the creek you expect it to flood periodically but in the "90s" it has become a record breaking (Comedy of Errors). Mother Nature is the Jokester and she proves who's boss!!!
In 1990 we broke the record flood depth of 1947 by about 6
inches. It was called a 40 year flood. In 1993 we broke the record
flood depth of 1990 by about 2 feet. It was called the 500 year
flood.
In 1996 we didn't break any water depth records but we
had 3 floods about 1 month apart.
On the June
21 flood we had 5.8 inches of rain, on
the July 17 flood we had
6.05 inches of rain
and on the August 5 flood
we had 5.4 inches of rain.
From March 1st to Dec 30th we
had (not counting snowfall).
Our average rainfall for the year is 30 inches.
Iowa's temperature for 1996 was the 2nd coldest for the century,
since 1917.
This view is to the SW towards the Trestle. It was the first flood on June 21, 1996. The corn was submerged on this flood bottom field. |
This dreary view is towards the NW, towards our farm north of Manning. It was the second flood (which was about 10 inches below the 1947 flood level) of the three and the worst part was the windstorm, which blew from several different directions and reached wind gusts of 60 mph. The corn you don't see in the fore-ground (or should I say "fore-water") is 6 feet tall. |
This photo is of the Flood Record Levels as recorded by MJM (a local business that builds farm augers) which is very near the Nishnabotna Creek. The first level is 1947, the second level is 1990, the third level is 1993 and the last level (1996) was meant as kind of a joke which almost came true in that we had 3 floods on the third (every 3 years) year of the floods of the "90s".
Take note of the black mailbox, to guage how deep the water was in 1993!!! |