FLOODS

With small rivers and creeks already running bankful over eastern Kansas. torrential rains with rainfall rates as great as 10 inches in 12 hours the last few days of June and the first few days of July caused rivers in Kansas to flood the lowlands. After a break with clear skies on the fourth of July, the heavy rains began again on the 5th. At Manhattan KS, where the Big Blue river and Kansas rivers meet, floodwaters inundated 70 city blocks with water up to the second floor of stores along Main Street. The floodwaters moved downstream to Topeka, forcing 20,000 persons to evacuate the city, then downstream to Lawrence causing their worst flood ever (to that date).

The five industrial districts which border the Kansas River in Kansas City were protected by a 35-foot dike which was equipped with floodgates at each tributary and topped by an 8-foot wall. The dike was designed to handle a flood five feet higher than the one which devastated the area in June of 1903. However, calculations later showed that the volume of water coming towards Kansas City was twice the amount in 1951 than had happened in 1903. The onset of floodwaters reached Kansas City KS on Thursday July 12 and the Kansas river began rising rapidly, reaching its peak stage on Saturday the 14th. Water rose six inches an hour until it was just a few feet below the top of the dike.

The piers of bridges began to be battered from drift- wood and whole farmhouses which had been swept downstream. Tons of rocks were dumped where the water had already began cutting into the levee and hundreds of workers, both volunteer and paid, sandbagged weak spots in the levee. Shortly before midnight, the Kansas river began to spill over and through the levee protecting the Argentine district and residents were forced to flee to nearby bluffs, some with the surging water just behind them. For the superstitious, Friday the 13th certainly gave support to their belief. Early that morning, after the Armourdale district had been evacuated, a 4-mile long wave of water began to cascade over the levee and inundated the district with 15 to 30 feet of water. Many people were rescued by boats, out of trees, ledges and roof- tops. Later that morning the Central Industrial District was flooded even while Mayor Roe Bartle of Kansas City MO was on a aerial inspection of the flood scene.

The livestock industry was paralyzed, packing plants were flooded and thousands of hogs and cattle swept away. As if the raging floodwaters were not enough disaster for one day, the waters made a canal out of Southwest Boulevard. A 6000 gallon oil tank, caught in the current, struck a high tension wire and exploded, spewing burning oil upon the surface of the water. The burning oil ignited the Phillips Petroleum Company oil tanks, which went up with a roar that rocked downtown Kansas City. Before long eight city blocks were aflame as dozens of oil tanks exploded in a chain reaction that lasted five days. The Hannibal Bridge and A.S.B. Bridge were the only two highway bridges remaining in operating order. Several immense barges were torn loose and caught in the current about a half-mile upstream from the Hannibal Bridge. These barges threatened to destroy the remaining bridges but, fortunately, two of the barges arrived at the Hannibal Bridge at the same time and wedged against the bridge. The barges were quickly secured to the bridge with chains.

The Missouri River and the Kansas River threatened to spill into the Municipal (now Downtown) Airport, the Fairfax District, and North Kansas City that Friday night. Planes were evacuated and North Kansas City residents were ordered to leave at once. Thousands of men, using trucks and bulldozers, worked through the night to add support to the dike, but the collapse of the Jersey dike early Saturday the 15th was too much and water began to pour into the Fairfax District. In anticipation of such a break a second levee had been started in order to protect the Quindaro Utility Plant in the Northwest corner of the district. The plant supplied water and electricity to more than 130,000 customers in KCKS. Shutting down the plant would have been disastrous and there were fears that the water hitting the 2000 degree boilers would lead to a devastating explosion. Workers virtually removed a nearby clay hill in their efforts to build up and support the dike. By 4 AM Saturday the dike was within a foot of being topped, but the flood had crested. By Monday waters were receding as fast as they had come up.

The flood caused more than one billion dollars (1951 dollars) and claimed 41 lives in the Midwest. In Kansas City only three persons drowned, but property damage was $870 million dollars. Of the five industrial districts only North Kansas City was completely saved. The airport and the Quindaro plants were also spared from the worst. (Written by an unknown USWB Hydrologist in a report at the time)