Twenty-five years ago this time the Junction City area had just come through the big flood of 1993.

Water poured out of the Milford Lake emergency spillway while the Republican and Smoky Hill Rivers flooded.

During a JC Now program on 1420 KJCK AM, a former Park Manager for the Corps of Engineers at Milford Lake, Harvey Brink noted the flood was a first time experience for that reservoir. “So it’s an uncontrolled spillway with the idea it’s developed that way. All Corps of Engineers, all dams were built that way with an uncontrolled spillway.”

Brink stated uncontrolled means there is no idea where the water going over the spillway is going to go “and how it’s going to affect because of different situations.” In this case a unique one-time cut had to be made across K-57 Highway southeast of the Milford Lake Dam to give the water someplace to go so it wouldn’t cut off U.S. Highway 77.

On the north side of Junction City water coming out of the Republican River crept south for several blocks down Grant Avenue. Sand bags and sand were brought in with volunteers filling them for use in stopping the water in multiple locations. Current Geary County Emergency Management Director Garry Berges oversaw the sand bagging operation. “We set up at the old Gibson building, which is the 300 block of Grant Avenue, because Gibson’s was closed at that time. The sand company just kept bringing in semi-loads of sand. We had volunteers, we probably had 200 – 300 at a time in there tying them.” Berges estimated 10,000 or more sand bags were used.

The worst of the flooding hit in late July and extended for a period of several days. On the south side the Smoky Hill River jumped out of its banks and flooded low-lying farmland along the south side of Interstate 70. There was also other flooding in the region, particularly on the northeast side of Manhattan where water came through Tuttle Creek Reservoir.