ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how floods are defined and addresses the effects of the 1993 flood on major reservoir operations and commercial navigation. Flooding along the Mississippi River from the 1993 rainstorms was the most devastating in the history of the United States in terms of property loss and disrupted lives and business activities. The chapter discusses the antecedent conditions that helped set the stage for the flood, followed by a description of the significant rain events during the flood. The magnitude of the 1993 flood and resultant damages would have been greater had large volumes of floodwaters not been stored in the Midwestern reservoirs of the Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation and, to some extent, those of the Soil Conservation Service. The chapter concludes with a summary and an assessment of lessons learned from the 1993 flood.
