‘Like We Don’t Exist’: One Year After the Flood, a Sense of Abandonment Lingers in McCook Lake

‘Like we don’t exist’: One year after the flood, a sense of abandonment lingers in McCook Lake

McCOOK LAKE — Morgan and Malcom Speichinger still live in a house that was damaged in a flood one year ago, because they have no better option. “If we could afford to move, we would,” Morgan said. Three days of rain last June 20-22 in southeast South Dakota surpassed 17 inches in some locations. Local and state authorities implemented a half-century-old diversion plan to handle record-high water that was flowing down the Big Sioux River toward S…

‘Like we don’t exist’: One year after the flood, a sense of abandonment lingers in McCook Lake • South Dakota Searchlight

Malcolm and Morgan Speichinger stand in the backyard of their McCook Lake home on June 11, 2025. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)McCOOK LAKE — Morgan and Malcom Speichinger still live in a house that was damaged in a flood one year ago, because they have no better option. “If we could afford to move, we would,” Morgan said.  Three days of rain last June 20-22 in southeast South Dakota surpassed 17 inches in some locations. Local and state…

‘Like we don’t exist’

McCOOK LAKE — Morgan and Malcom Speichinger still live in a house that was damaged in a flood one year ago, because they have no better option.

The Forgotten Story of the Flood That Ended Oregon's Second Largest

If you’ve never heard of the flood that wiped Oregon’s second-largest city off the map, you’re in for one of the most shocking and little-known stories in the state’s history. The city was called Vanport, and in 1948, it was home to nearly 18,500 people — until a catastrophic flood struck on a Sunday afternoon, Memorial Day, and erased it in a matter of hours. Vanport rose almost as quickly as it fell. Built in just 110 days in 1942, the city wa…