President Harry S. Truman called it the “greatest loss by water in this nation’s history.”    

On July 13, 1951 — after weeks of heavy rain flooded the Kansas River and its tributaries — raging waters poured over levees intended to protect industrial districts and communities on both sides of the state line. The disaster forced thousands of residents to evacuate, leaving them homeless. Damage to industries in the Kaw River Basin totaled more than $10 billion in today’s dollars.    

Brian Burnes, the author of the 2001 book High & Rising: The 1951 Kansas City Flood, looks back at the devastation caused by the once-in-a-generation deluge across the area, and how it remains fixed in the community’s collective memory, despite monumental efforts to rally, recover, and rebuild. He also examines how the ’51 Flood influences the battle with high water that continues 75 years later.  

Burnes is a contributing writer at Kansas City PBS’s Flatland KC and a former history reporter for The Kansas City Star. He is also the author of Mizzou 175: The Remarkable Story of Missouri’s Flagship University and The Ike files: Mementos of the Man and His Era from the Presidential Library and Museum. 
  
His presentation marks the opening of the new Central Library exhibition Hell and High Water: The 1951 Kansas City Flood, which runs from July 11, 2026, through January 3, 2027.