The 1969 Flood

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 10^th 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.