West Pike residents reflect on the Great Flood of 1993

It’s a day that is all too familiar for people that lived in Pike County, especially for those in the western part. July 25, 1993, around 11:30am with most people still in church, when they were given the news that the Sny Island Levee had given way.

In the weeks leading up to one of the areas worst catastrophes, there was hope that it would be preventable. After all, it had not rained too much in the area, the worst of the rain was north in the Dakota’s, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

Preparing to prevent the flood was an effort that required all hands-on deck. Most of the work involved placing sandbags to try and reinforce the levee in its weakest spots.

“I went down there to help one night, they put me in charge of National Guard guys, one asked me how high the water was, I told him to walk to the top of the levee and look,” Jeff Snyder, a Plainville resident, said while laughing.

“I worked the whole month of July down there; my wife Libby was washing clothes for the National Guard troops who were living at the school,” Hank Walton, a retired West Pike Principal and Kinderhook resident, said.

It wasn’t just volunteers, marine core workers, and National Guard soldiers. They also required the help of people serving time behind bars.

“They had the prisoners down there helping in whatever way they could,” Jim Reed, a Hull resident said.

With the chaos and confusion that came with prevention efforts, it led to disagreements about what steps could be taken. There were locals there around the clock and each thought their way was the best way.

“Everybody was an expert, telling each other how it was done,” Reed said.

The collapse of the Sny Island Levee led to the entire town of Hull being submerged in flood water. While the water didn’t reach Kinderhook it went all the way to Highway 57, which sits north of Hull.

This forced many evacuees of Hull and the Hull river bottoms to take refuge in surrounding towns that had been unaffected. Due to the flooding interrupting every part of a person’s daily life, it was impossible to not have it on your mind.

“All you thought about was the river, you had the scanner on all night. It was like a book with a really bad ending,” Reed described.

Of course, there are also many stories that people have told about that summer. One that is joked about now but was very serious 30 years ago is told by Larry Cox, a resident of Seehorn.

The story is about a man who had a house in the Hull river bottoms.

“He wasn’t at his house when the levee broke, when he left the house, he left all his windows open,” Cox said.

And then there is the story about the people who were actively working when the levee broke.

“The guys in bull dozers, they climbed the trees, and the trees were filled with snakes and other animals. Animals are smart enough to know when something is going to happen,” Walton said.

In the days leading up to the flood, when it was known the levee wouldn’t be able to hold, the West Pike school district just then began to pursue flood insurance. Miraculously, in the 23 hours between the levee breaking and the water reaching the elementary school in Hull, they were able to secure insurance.

According to the United States Geological Survey and their estimations, 54,000 people were evacuated, 50,000 homes were destroyed, and economic losses were between 15 to 20 billion dollars. It is also considered to be one of the ten most expensive natural disasters in United States history.

In Hull, the makeup of the people who lived there was forever changed.

“People claimed they wouldn’t go back to town. The people who were well off didn’t come back. The houses went for cheap,” Walton described.

As the years go on, people who went through the Great Flood of 1993 would rather forget that fateful summer than remember it. The lessons taken away are plentiful and have gone into preventing any levee breaches in western Pike County since.

Maybe the best way to describe it is the way Tom Dunker, a Hull resident and former lockmaster at Saverton and Quincy, put it.

“The flood of ’93? I’d rather forget it than talk about it.”

THE FLOODED Haerr Farm which was located outside of West Quincy. PHOTO COURTESY OF QUINCY LIBRARY.

QUINCY’S BAYVIEW BRIDGE from the West Quincy side. PHOTO COURTESY OF QUINCY LIBRARY.

AYERCO located in West Quincy goes up in flames, shortly after the levee collapsed. PHOTO COURTESY OF QUINCY LIBRARY.