Red River Cresting - Midwest Flood Danger

This will be unwelcome news for anyone living in a river based town in the Midwest. The AP is reporting the that Red River in North Dakota has begun to crest and is almost at water levels equal to what it reached during the floods of 1997. Per the AP:

The Red River began cresting here Tuesday afternoon, just over two feet shy of the 1997 flood, the city's worst in a century. The river, which runs north along the North Dakota-Minnesota line, was peaking in Fargo at 37 feet, or 19 feet above flood stage, about 5 p.m...........

The flood of 1997 was nothing compared to the Great Flood of 1993. NOAA lists it as "one of the most significant and damaging natural disasters to ever hit the US". That was before Hurricane Katrina obviously, but it was a "huge disaster" for the people living along the rivers in the Midwest:

From May through September of 1993, major and/or record flooding occurred across North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Illinois. Fifty flood deaths occurred, and damages approached $15 billion. Hundreds of levees failed along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.
The magnitude and severity of this flood event was simply over-whelming, and it ranks as one of the greatest natural disasters ever to hit the United States. Approximately 600 river forecast points in the Midwestern United States were above flood stage at the same time. Nearly 150 major rivers and tributaries were affected. It was certainly the largest and most significant flood event ever to occur in the United States......

Lots of cities like Fargo have built new and stronger levees to protect their towns from flooding after 1993, but areas that don't have the improved levees will be in even a worse situation than 1993 since they will get all the diverted water. If the flooding occurred today and broke the new levees, the damage would be astronomic per MOENVIRON.org:

In the Chesterfield Valley alone, over $1 billion in commercial investment has been placed in areas that were under 10 feet of water in July of 1993. The city of Maryland Heights plans to heavily develop 4200 acres of Missouri River floodplain land once the Howard Bend Levee is raised to a purported 500-year level.....

Chesterfield Valley alone would be $1 billion compared to $15 total in 1993. We do about 50% of our shopping and dinning in the Chesterfield Valley development and it is huge. Miles of retail shops and restaurants that would be underwater by the 1993 flood levels. I drive to work on a road that goes through the Howard Bend Levee area, so ten feet of water would not be good for the commute.

Lets hope that it's a mild flood if any at all and nothing near the 1993 levels, and there is no evidence that it will be at this point. The image of the 1993 flood that sticks in my mind is the farm house being swept away and floating away while the TV crew filmed it from a helicopter. A 100 year old farm home turned into a house boat and floated away.........................