Great Flood of 1951

Flooding occurred in the Kansas, Neosho, Marais Des Cygnes, and Verdigris river basins.

The damage in June and July 1951 across eastern Kansas and Missouri exceeded $935 million (equivalent to $11 billion in 2023).

Dr. Charles F. Wiest, Professor of Philosophy and Religion, and his seven-year-old daughter perished when their home caved in under the weight of the water while he was attempting to save prized texts in his basement.

Two police officers drove the low riding streets with their sirens blaring, shouting to evacuate.

[2] The specific flood-levels are not accurately known for the Kansas River, as the water crested above all official flood gauges.

Barracks at the Fort were destroyed, and in Manhattan the downtown business district was deluged under 8 feet (2.4 m) of water and two people were killed.

On July 17, President Harry Truman toured the damage by airplane, as far west as Manhattan, and declared the disaster "one of the worst this country has ever suffered from water".

Several others had been planned by the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation, both authorized by the Flood Control Act of 1944.

[6] In 2011, the painting Flood Disaster by Thomas Hart Benton was sold for $1.9 million in an auction at Sotheby's in New York City.

[7][8] Channeling and levee construction have altered how the floods have hit various areas along the Missouri River.

It destroyed the city's stockyards and forced the building of an airport away from the Missouri River bottoms.