Event narrative (NOAA)
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers activated the New Madrid Floodway by detonating a levee at Birds Point in Mississippi County. The intentional levee breach relieved pressure on levees along the lower Ohio River and portions of the Mississippi River. The blast that opened the levee shattered windows in Mississippi County and rattled windows as far away as Paducah, Kentucky. The flash flood caused by the levee breach was anticipated for days, and evacuations had been completed beforehand. Over 130,000 acres of prime farmland were submerged. Dozens of homes were flooded. A primary national insurer estimated property losses were around 100 million dollars within the floodway. The westward extent of the flash flood was limited by a second set of levees designed to channel the water back toward
Other notable flash flood events in Missouri
Source: NOAA/NCEI Storm Events Database. Deaths and injuries are those NOAA classifies as direct. Damage is the reporting office's estimate at the time and is not inflation-adjusted. This is a catalogue record, not a forecast.