A
classmate recently reminded us that similar flooding occurred during the
spring of our senior year. That suggestion generated a number of
email responses. Some individuals have vivid recollections of the vast
amount of water that flooded the county then, while others have vague
remembrances. Since that devastation took place 50 years
ago, the intervening years may have dimmed our memories of the severity of
that flood.
A
trip to the library to review microfilmed copies of the Brookings
Register for 1969 yielded much information. The quality of the
copies produced is not very good, but we will display some articles and
pictures below, and provide any necessary comments that some of our classmates
have sent to us.
This
first article is from Feb. 19. Because of the extraordinary amount of
snow we had that winter, a flood threat was foreseen. (If you click on
the pictures, will they become larger and easier to read?)
This next picture is from the
March 12th issue. Here, Reserve Policemen are filling sandbags to be
ready when needed.
The
next two articles are from April 9 and 12. Dale Brchan, City Civil
Defense Director, noted that "the city of Brookings was well out of danger
of serious flooding." (Perhaps that is why some of us have little
recollection of this) There were, however, ten rescues that had been
performed by the Brookings Fire Department, including six of north
of Bruce, one four and one-half miles north of Brookings, another from a house
west of town near Volga, and one at a home 1.5 miles northwest of the
Lake Campbell bridge. County Civil Defense Director Robert
Bishman stressed the importance of getting people out of danger. "We
have to learn to say 'no' that we can't help with stock; we must first
concern ourselves with people."
The
public was, for the most part, cooperating and assisting in these rescue
efforts. Fire chief Charles Jensen remarked "High school, college
and town people have all volunteered their help."
It seems
that a few individuals did cause some problems, though. Streets
Commissioner Paul Prussman said that his department barricaded streets so
that a dike could be built on West 8th Street to contain the overflow of water
from the north (Sexauer Creek?). People that wanted to view the operation
were hindering the process, however, and street superintendent Jerry Wagner had
to direct traffic until policemen arrived.
27 vacant
mobile homes from Melody Manor (was that north of the bowling alley?) were
removed from their lots and parked near the airport.
Caution
was advised when driving on county roads, as some roadbeds were washed away and
were not readily visible. Even the bridge on I-29 was being threatened by
flood waters. Further below is the story of a local runner who found out
the misfortunes of disobeying that advice.
Fortunately,
few problems occurred with city utilities. There were a few small power
outages from a lightning strike, but service was restored to the affected areas
in less than a couple of hours.
This next picture shows a
portion of Highway 14 (west of town?) completely covered with water.
This last article from April
23 indicates the damage done to the roads in the county.
As
mentioned above, some students remember the flood very well. Thanks to BH,
who remembers "snow 4' deep on their entire driveway...and he had to shovel it
all off. And Sioux River over Hwy 77 south of Brookings," for the
suggestion of emailing the classmates. Some of the responses we have
received:
"I
remember the flood of '69. There was a blizzard every weekend all
winter. I lived on a farm. Mom and stayed in town with a friend of
moms. Dad would open the driveway so we could get home for an hour or
2. We would go home on Saturday and take dad food and go right back to
town. It was not fun. Then in the spring I would ride the bus home
and it took an hour as we had to go way south of Lake Campbell."
"You
had to live on the Sioux river. I spent a week or more on a couple acres
with my grandparents north of Bruce. Our entire farm was under water, we
spent 24 hours a day manning a sump pump in the basement to keep it from
flooding. The road to the south, I think number 403 or 406 had the river
bridge approachs washed away. The bridge on the road to our north by the
cousins was damaged so badly they had to replace at least parts of it. It
was closed for many weeks. Yes there was a terrible flood in
1969!"
"Wow!!
Memories we'll never forget. I was snowed in and missed the trip to
Mitchell. Ken Thury wanted to come out on a snowmobile and get me, but
the snow & winds were really bad! Couldn't make it. It does
bring back memories!! Ironic 50 years later!!"
"I
left out some other classmates that lived nearby: Rick
Thompson, Langners, Rodney Hill, Rick Hill, Nancy Hendricks, Tom Moxon, Paula
Hoffman in Aurora. I know
the Thompsons and the Hills were hit hard too."
"Our family moved out of
Brookings in my 10th grade to Aurora Township, That was a nasty
winter…blizzard after blizzard, snow and more snow. I think it was one of the
coldest winters we had too. I missed a basketball game in Mitchell
because the roads were blocked no travel was allowed.
Coach Ken Thury wanted to send
a few snowmobiles to come and get me but the winds were so bad, visibility was
zero!!
It wasn’t worth the risk. Our
garage was blocked with 5-6 feet of blowing snow and we boys had to shovel!
What a workout!!
Spring brought the rains and
flooding! All the farms in our area was under water! The Fosters, Barnetts,
Nancy Petersen, Jornby, Fiersteads, Olsons, Dan Wheeler….all under water!
The list goes on. There was an
old wood/metal bridge by Nancy Petersen that was damaged by the flooding. The
road and bridge were replaced with a new bridge and road was straightened
instead of that curve. I remember that well, very well…I was wishing we
never moved out of Brookings into the country."
"I
just remember one-way plow jobs on the streets, orange balls on people's car
antennas, and missing several Fridays in January and February. However, I
don't think we missed any basketball games."
"And
now I know... the REST of the Story! "
"Thanks
for the look back."
"Oddly,
I don't remember this even with the reminder. I do recall poking sticks
into snowdrifts to locate cars, and I recall that following winter as extreme
for blizzards across the north half of the country, but somehow I missed
logging in the floods. That was only my fourth winter there, and I didn't
really have much of a benchmark to tell me that winter was especially one of
those. In 69/70, I recall multiple blizzards that had semis rolling over into
ditches across from Iowa to Pennsylvania, but that wasn't so local. At
all events, I was assuming it was my memory, rather than history, that lacked
the flood. I noticed one in Nashville in 2010, but don't recall its having a
death toll to match what hit Nebraska this year. Whether I can or not, I'd
rather not imagine having what I saw in '10 happen on family land."
“Also,
I have no recollection of this.”
“I
think we were partying too much then. I don’t remember it. I
remember blizzards, but not the year we graduated.”
"Love these stories! Thanks for sharing!"
"Well,
that makes three of us!!!!😂 I remember Sexauer Park always flooding and
out by the Prairie. Also the Sioux river. So maybe if I dig deep, I
could convince myself I remember. 😉 ( But I
don’t)"
"Like
the others, I don't remember much about the flooding since we were safely in
town. I do remember the huge amount of snow on the ground and the red
flags/balls on the antenna. It was my last winter in South Dakota and my
last hard winter in cold country. What a way to go out!"
During the track and
field season in spring of 1969, our training runs often took us
out on the gravel roads outside of town. 22nd Avenue South,
between what is now Edgebrook Golf Course and Dakota Nature Park, was one
we often used. Parts of that road were under water that
spring. While we were foolish enough to run through what we thought was
only a little water, others have not been so lucky. About 25 years ago,
there was another big flood here. One area jogger told our
local running group of his Sunday run that turned into a "survival
swim" during flood season. It seems he was running northwest of
the cemetery, where a creek (we usually call it Sexauer Creek, but its correct
name, I think, is 6-Mile Creek) runs across the land just west from
the airport. A sign was posted, indicating that the road was closed and
impassable. This guy kept jogging, thinking that the water was only a few
inches deep. All of a sudden, he hit a drop-off, where the road had been
washed out. He ended up with a number of stitches on his arm and a couple on his face because the swift current pushed him into a barbed-wire fence. That experience reminded him of the song Red Rubber Ball
by The Cyrkle: "There's a lesson to be learned from this and I
learned it very well."(https://www.bing.com/search?q=red+rubber+ball+song&form=PRUSEN&pc=EUPP_&mkt=en-us&httpsmsn=1&refig=136c2f1822aa4bdd9187322b64662f4a&sp=1&qs=LS&pq=red+rubber&sc=8-10&cvid=136c2f1822aa4bdd9187322b64662f4a)
Was
1969 the year that construction began to rebuild Hwy 14 between Brookings
and Volga, and to make it a four lane divided highway? It seems that two
lanes would be built just south and slightly higher than the present roadbed,
allowing temporarily for two-way traffic. This road would eventually
become the two east-bound lanes. When those would be finished, the
old highway would be torn up and replaced, again at a higher
elevation, with those lanes becoming the two west-bound lanes.
Additional construction would result in an overpass near Cameron's Corner, and
a bypass north and east of town. To find out when this
occurred will require more hours at the library.
1969
was not the only year in the decade that the county flooded. Flooding
also occurred in the spring of 1962. Below are some
articles/pictures from the Brookings Register archives found at the
library. Again, the quality is not the greatest. The larger
picture was taken just north of the bowling alley, while the picture of
the cat on a hot wood telephone pole (apologies to Tennessee
Williams) was taken near the bridge east of town (was that near Tom
Moxon's house?)
The picture below was taken
near the Big Sioux west of town. All of the white space is water.
Flandreau was also severely affected, with water coming within four inches of
the all-time set in 1957. Highway 13 six miles north of Flandreau was
washed out, and the road to the Flandreau Indian School was blocked.
Aurora, too, had its problems, as water was running over the roads two miles
east and two south of there. Eldor Mueller, soil conservationist
and father of Eugene of our class, stated "All in all, it was a major
flood for this area, but it will not affect the land much except to delay
planting." Mention is also made that this flood crested about six
inches higher than the flood of 1960, but six inches lower than the
flood of 1951.
