Think About It

Fifty years ago, Rapid City, South Dakota and the surrounding Black Hills were inundated by over a dozen inches of rain. In what had already been a wet period, the rains came down and overwhelmed the local river ways and dams. When the Canyon Lake Dam was compromised the community was flooded in one of the greatest natural disasters ever experienced in the area. All-in-all, almost 250 people lost their lives (including Rapid City Police Officer Daniel Wickard whose patrol car was washed away as he tried to warn people of flooding). Reports from fifty years ago indicate over a thousand homes and 5000 cars were destroyed in this rather modest-sized town. The loss (in 1972 dollars) was over $160 million. As the Rapid City community remembers the devastation from fifty years ago, it is a good reminder to us that we never know what the future holds in store for us. I doubt anyone could have anticipated what would happen that day, but thousands of people were impacted the devastatio