RAPID CITY, S.D. – Today is the 50th anniversary of the 1972 flood that swept through Rapid City, taking the lives of 238 people.
Mayor Don Barnett faced the unthinkable on that fateful evening of June 9th when he began receiving reports of flooded creeks in the area, a result of a deluge of 17 inches of rain. A power outage made the flood warnings and evacuation alerts moot.
Barnett remembers the horror as if it were yesterday.
“All the men and I were standing around, and we heard this crunch, and the Canyon Lake bridge floated into Canyon Lake.”
Barnett says a flood surge ruptured the Canyon Lake Dam.
The foggy dawn of June 10th revealed the extent of the previous night’s death and destruction. Barnett says 238 people were dead and a swath of ruined homes and businesses six miles long and six blocks wide.
Fifty years later, Barnett has written a memoir of the flood and its aftermath from the perspective of the Rapid City mayor’s office.
He will share that story on Friday, June 10, at 2:00 p.m. mountain with a live audience at the Journey Museum’s Wells Fargo Theater
Since the flood, Barnett says he has spent his time educating people about why it’s a stupid thing to live near a creek.
Over the years, Barnett and other survivors have successfully fought attempts to again build near the creek. Fifty-years after the flood, he’s hoping future generations won’t repeat the mistakes of the past.
