In 1993 the Midwest suffered its worst flooding in its history. Many States were flooded in 1993 including Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, Tennessee, and Missouri. We were hit very hard in Missouri from both the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. Hardin is only about three miles North of the Missouri River, and it was hit hard. Our family sustained flood damage, but not as bad as many residents of Hardin did that summer. Many people lost there homes forever. And our community sustained the worst cemetery disaster in our Nation's history. The following pertains primarily to our experiences during and after the Flood of 1993. At the time we lived at 602 North Street in Hardin, Missouri.

In the photo above our home at the time is hard to see because it is surrounded by trees. My father's home (W.E. Bales) and where I grew up is in the (^) center of the photo. it is directly above the (^)

Below is an article I wrote that was published in the Kansas City Star. After the flood environmentalists was lobbying hard to not allow people to re-build their homes that had been flood damaged, and also to not re-build levees that would protect us from future flooding. And government agencies were considering the environmentalists self-serving position. So after fighting to save our homes from the Flood of 1993 we also had to fight to save our homes and community from our own government and environmentalists.

Needless to say the environmentalists lost, and Hardin, Missouri, and other communities throughout the Midwest are still home to honest, hard-working, self sufficent people. Though we do have many government regulations we have to follow in Hardin, and all towns like our's in Flood Plains, the facts remain: we are still here, we survived, we overcame adversity, and we always will.

In June 2000 we moved into our new home just outside Hardin, Missouri. It is still in the Flood Plain but it is designed as 'flood survivable', and meets or exceeds all FEMA regulations. The old house was sold in 2001.