There are a number of remembrance events this week to commemorate the 46th anniversary of the Rapid City Flood.
(City Photo/Darrell Shoemaker)
Saturday, June 9 marks the 46th anniversary of the tragic 1972 Rapid City Flood that claimed 238 lives.
Special events of remembrance this weekend include:
**The Journey Museum and Learning Center presents '46 Years Later...We Remember The Rapid City Flood', a presentation by Troy Kilpatrick, executive director of the Museum. The presentation is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at the Museum.
**Friends of Rapid City Parks' annual Memory Walk at 10 a.m. Sunday at the Memorial Park Band Shell. Includes presentation by Susan Sanders, meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Following the talk, the walk will include the loop through Memorial Park and a stop for remembrance at the monument that records the names of the 238 flood victims. The annual event commemorates the city's tragic flood event from 46 years ago and celebrates the park system that grew in its wake.
**The Rapid City Public Library is hosting the Robb DeWall Collection through the month of June at the downtown library. The public can view transcripts of KOTA news broadcasts the week of the Flood. The transcripts begin on June 9, 1972, the night the flood hit Rapid City, and go through June 17, 1972, telling the dramatic story of the disaster that swept through Rapid City and the recovery efforts in the eight days that followed. DeWall was a long-time resident of Rapid City, and a broadcast journalist and historian. He was the Emergency Broadcast System broadcaster during the first 13 hours of the Rapid City Flood.