1961 Flood Video of Cedar Rapids Surfaces

By Mark Geary, Reporter

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By Mark Geary

Story Created: Jul 17, 2008 at 7:47 PM CST

Story Updated: Jul 17, 2008 at 10:15 PM CST

CEDAR RAPIDS -- We've shown you hours and hours of images of the recent flood in Cedar Rapids. But, this isn't the first time the city has dealt with a flood.

The 1961 flood in Cedar Rapids was the fourth worst in the city's history.

Mike Borst found a film from the flood when his company was getting ready to demolish the old Public Works building that used to sit near the current police station.

"We never did have a machine that could play it, so it kind of sat in our desk for about twenty years,” Borst said.

Now, we've converted the film and can show you video of the 1961 flood.

"It looked like they were having the same kind of struggle we were. Maybe not quite as bad it we did, but it didn't look like they were having too much either,” Borst said.

We watched the video with Cedar Rapids historian Mark Hunter. He said it's rare to find a color film of this quality from this era.

"It really captured the moment when the floodwaters were probably near their crest or certainly at a dangerously high level. You can almost sense the energy of the people,” Hunter said.

Hunter says the city built levies along the river shortly after the flood to try and prevent more damage in the future.

No one's really sure who shot the film.

Hunter plans to study it further to try and learn as much from it as possible.

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