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  • Tags: Missouri River

Flood prevention efforts along the levee

NW Railroad officials surveying the tracks

Sandbagging efforts along the Missouri River

The North Levee, Council Bluffs, Iowa

Council Bluffs, Iowa . . . Making 5,000 sandwiches a day and hundreds of hot meals falls on the shoulders of more than 100 Council Bluffs housewives, a group of whom are shown here at work in the Moose Hall commissary, working as Red Cross…

Council Bluffs, Iowa . . . Red Cross volunteer, Mrs. B. Balaban, residing at 900 North 8th St., Council Bluffs, Iowa, assists PFC Willard Dickerson, Co. Headquarters, 199th Engineers, in moving a case of freshly made sandwiches out of Moose Hall…

Council Bluffs, Iowa . . . Miss Shirleymae Hendrix, a Red Cross volunteer residing at 1649 Madison Ave., Council Bluffs, Iowa, prepares freshly made soup in the kitchen of Moose Hall, which is one of the main food preparation centers in this area. …

Council Bluffs, Iowa . . . Working under the banner of the Red Cross, women of the Broadway Methodist Church in Council Bluffs prepared hot meals for flood evacuees in the church basement and served evacuees and dike workers in the church basement…

Council Bluffs, Iowa . . . Story telling keeps small children happy in Red Cross disaster shelters. Miss Sue Olsen, student at Abraham Lincoln High School in Council Bluffs, helps amuse six young evacuees.

Council Bluffs, Iowa . . . Red Cross volunteer, Mrs. Charles Milner, Council Bluffs, calls upon Levee worker Mr. Ben Myatt, 625 Pierce St., Omaha, NE, to take a sample of her freshly made soup. Mr. Myatt is one of the thousands of volunteer workers…

A human chain passes sandbags along at the North Levee in Council Bluffs.

One of the great worries of the flood was sandboils, caused by water seeping under the levees and breaking through the earth behind them. Sandboils near the Douglas Street bridge on the Iowa side are ringed with sandbags.

Piers for a new highway bridge usually standing on dry ground were subjected to torrents of Missouri River water during the flood.

What was once a peaceful farm scene is now a picture of destruction as the Missouri River flooded this farm north of Omaha.

Levee breach on the Missouri River
April 1952

North Levee, Council Bluffs, IA
April 1952

Misplaced beaver near the Missouri River

The "Sandbagged City" . . . becomes a synonym for Council Bluffs in news stories carried throughout the world by press services. Many downtown businesses protected fronts with bags of sand. These are piled alongside the old Howard Plastics Co. at…

Surveying the flooded Missouri River
April 1952
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