In northwest Iowa, The Flood of ’93 left more than damage. In 2024, those lessons rose with the water.

episode summary

episode summary

tales
from the
iowa great
lakes

When the floodwaters rose across the Iowa Great Lakes in the summer of 1993, people grabbed sandbags. And some grabbed cameras.

Curtis Dean was the News Director at KICD in Spencer. Mike Tuinstra, then of Spencer Transvideo Productions, and Cindy Frederick, with C Freds Video, were capturing images on the ground.

Together, they produced The Sandbag Summer, a documentary about the Flood that shaped our region's memory. They weren't just observers. They were embedded in it: walking flooded roads, interviewing leaders on the ground, and pointing lenses at moments no one wanted to forget.

This week's episode of The Okoboji Project revisits that historic flood. But it's also a tribute to the people who documented it in real time.

Tuinstra and Frederick's still photographs, which we pulled from the documentary, offer a raw, unfiltered look at what the Flood left behind. They followed the water into backyards, across main streets, and down into the mud. What's striking is not just the damage, but the people: exhausted and knee-deep in water... but still helping one another. Still united.

Curtis's narration is also particularly striking because they remind us of how local storytelling becomes part of the collective recovery. His reflections take us back to the radio station, to the moment the emergency alerts started firing, to a newsroom trying to keep up with a disaster that wouldn't slow down.

Thirty years later, the memories are still vivid. And for Spencer, which experienced catastrophic flooding again in 2024, the parallels are hard to ignore.

The past year has made one thing clear: disaster recovery doesn't end when the water recedes. It continues in kitchens with torn-up flooring, in basements that still smell like river water, in the hands of volunteers repairing homes a year later. That's the part of the story we rarely see.

If you'd like to support Spencer's ongoing recovery, please consider making a gift to the Clay County Long Term Recovery Group. The need is real, and the work is ongoing.

Your donation will help provide emergency housing, cover insurance deductibles, support cleanup and debris removal, and pay for repairs that insurance won’t cover.

History is shaped by the people who show up, and the ones who don't let the story fade.

Thank you to Curtis, Mike, and Cindy for helping us remember.

And thank you for listening.

episode info

When the floodwaters rose across the Iowa Great Lakes in the summer of 1993, people grabbed sandbags. And some grabbed cameras.

Curtis Dean was the News Director at KICD in Spencer. Mike Tuinstra, then of Spencer Transvideo Productions, and Cindy Frederick, with C Freds Video, were capturing images on the ground.

Together, they produced The Sandbag Summer, a documentary about the Flood that shaped our region's memory. They weren't just observers. They were embedded in it: walking flooded roads, interviewing leaders on the ground, and pointing lenses at moments no one wanted to forget.

This week's episode of The Okoboji Project revisits that historic flood. But it's also a tribute to the people who documented it in real time.

Tuinstra and Frederick's still photographs, which we pulled from the documentary, offer a raw, unfiltered look at what the Flood left behind. They followed the water into backyards, across main streets, and down into the mud. What's striking is not just the damage, but the people: exhausted and knee-deep in water... but still helping one another. Still united.

Curtis's narration is also particularly striking because they remind us of how local storytelling becomes part of the collective recovery. His reflections take us back to the radio station, to the moment the emergency alerts started firing, to a newsroom trying to keep up with a disaster that wouldn't slow down.

Thirty years later, the memories are still vivid. And for Spencer, which experienced catastrophic flooding again in 2024, the parallels are hard to ignore.

The past year has made one thing clear: disaster recovery doesn't end when the water recedes. It continues in kitchens with torn-up flooring, in basements that still smell like river water, in the hands of volunteers repairing homes a year later. That's the part of the story we rarely see.

If you'd like to support Spencer's ongoing recovery, please consider making a gift to the Clay County Long Term Recovery Group. The need is real, and the work is ongoing.

Your donation will help provide emergency housing, cover insurance deductibles, support cleanup and debris removal, and pay for repairs that insurance won’t cover.

History is shaped by the people who show up, and the ones who don't let the story fade.

Thank you to Curtis, Mike, and Cindy for helping us remember.

And thank you for listening.

episode info

episode info

episode source material

episode source material

  • Interviews with Curtis Dean, former News and Public Affairs Director for KICD
  • A Sandbag Summer by Curtis Dean, Cindy Frederick, Mike Tuinstra

Keep Exploring

Keep exploring