Floods of '93  − 11 July, 1993

The Floods of 1993 caused a major levee to break in Des Moines, which flooded our downtown and overran our water filtration system. We were without drinking water and bathing water for over two weeks. The night this occurred, the date that most people remember, I was woken by a thunderstorm just shortly after 2 a.m., when the levee had just broken.

I turned on the television and saw the announcers at WHO-TV live in the studio, holding a flashlight and handheld microphones. They said right then that the water facility was out of commission, and that people should start filling up bathtubs and other containers right away. I went upstairs in my foster parents house and started doing that very thing. When they came out into the kitchen, I explained what had happened and turned on the little black-and-white kitchen TV so they could see for themselves.

Over the course of the next couple weeks, it was my task to take milk jugs in a backpack down to an emergency water filling station set up by the National Guard and then carrying the filled water jugs back home. My aunt, who lived downtown in a condo, gave me updates over the phone about what was going on. Her building's basement garage, for example, was completely flooded, and they were without power for the next few days.

Within a couple days, President Clinton visited Des Moines wearing a "Des Moines--The Big One-Five-OH!" sesquicentennial ballcap and commenced hugging people. My other memories of being inconvenienced by this event included riding in a car to Camp Dodge to the north of the city, and waiting in a three-hour line to take a cold-ass shower in the gym with dozens of naked men.

After two weeks, we regained the all-important ability to flush, but still did not have drinking water. Two days before Des Moines got that ability back, my aunt, my mom and I left for Jacksonville, Florida to attend my half-sister's wedding. I really enjoyed the shower I took in the hotel when we arrived in Missouri or Arkansas or whatever.