WEATHER: The Mighty Missouri

Spring came to the Midwest last week and with it the rush of rising waters. As heavy snow packs in the Dakotas melted in the warming weather, the Missouri and a score of lesser rivers swelled in floods that threatened to be the worst in valley history.

Running as much as ten feet over flood stage, and ten miles wide in stretches, the muddy Missouri surged through the Dakotas, Iowa and Nebraska, leaving thousands homeless, more than 1,000,000 acres of farm land inundated, millions of dollars in damage. Whole sections of Pierre, S. Dak. were swamped as the river crashed through...