19721776 Club
Canyon Lake Dam gives way at midnight; flash flood tears through Rapid City
Debris-choked spillway backs Rapid Creek 11 feet before the break; at least 238 are dead, 3,000 hurt, and 1,335 homes gone.
The soil across the Black Hills was already saturated when the thunderstorms arrived on the afternoon of June 9, 1972. An almost stationary cluster of storm cells stalled over the region, dropping between 4 and 15 inches of rain in a matter of hours — the equivalent of a billion metric tons of water — into the drainages feeding Rapid Creek. Debris carried by the swollen creek clogged the spillway of Canyon Lake Dam, backing water 11 to 12 feet before the dam gave way around midnight. The flash flood killed 238 people in and around Rapid City, injured more than 3,000, destroyed 1,335 homes, and caused an estimated $160 million in damage…
