It has been 50 years since the Rapid City Flood, when 238 people were killed in a flash flood that swept down Rapid Creek and other waterways after a downpour stalled over the Black Hills and dropped 15 inches of rain in a few hours. My parents were attending a concert on the west side of town, and left for home when a National Guardsman came on stage and told everyone to leave. We lived on a hill in southeast Rapid City, so we went to bed and didn't know what happened overnight. My brother called from college in Montana in the morning, and that's the first we knew of it.
My Dad worked for the power company, so of course he was very busy. The water was unsafe to use, and I remember going with him in his work truck through the dusty streets and National Guard checkpoints to the power plant just to take a shower. It was interesting that one of the after effects of too much water was the dust.
In 2002, I was in Rapid City on the 30th anniversary of the flood and snapped these pictures of western Rapid City from Dinosaur Park on the hill in the middle of town. The flood came from the upper left and swept though town to the lower right. The second image shows the Baken Park Shopping Center. Floodwaters came through the back and out the front, leaving the shell still standing, and it was rebuilt. Downtown Rapid City is to the right on the other side of the hill and was decimated.
