Maybe you’ve seen it on national news from CBS1 or NBC2, but my hometown of Muncie, Indiana, is dealing with a hundred-year flood right now. The White River through town, the Mississinewa in northern Delaware County, and all their tributaries are cresting near record heights. Businesses have shut down, residents have been evacuated by boat, and with more rain on the horizon through the weekend, it’s hard to tell what might happen next.
Muncie’s hundred-year flood might be more accurately described as a 113-year flood. Back in March 1913, violent storms were said to have brought hurricane-force winds, blizzards, and tornadoes to the Midwest. Then another brought a massive flood. In Muncie, the White River washed away bridges and wrapped around homes as garbage from the overwhelmed city dump floated downstream. The police station filled with refugees who watched furniture float past alongside boats and canoes3! Ultimately, the river crested at 22.60 feet4!
Old photos show that the 1913 flood was a force to be reckoned with. To previous generations, it was something like the Blizzard of ’78: a disaster so extraordinary that it became a benchmark for everything that followed. Fortunately, Muncie eventually got some protection: in 1938, the WPA widened and dredged the White River as it built levees, flood walls, and storm sewers. That same year, the improved river channel successfully carried away a “terrific cloudburst4” after fifty hours of rain. Unfortunately, less than a year later, another three-day deluge cracked and partially sank a 600-foot-long concrete seawall along Wheeling Avenue5.
Those problems were finally fully addressed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the 1940s. The Corps built 19,000 feet of earthen levees and 3,480 feet of concrete walls. It also enlarged nearly 5,000 feet of the existing levee system, improved 1,100 feet of the walls and 20,000 feet of the river channel, and added four pumping stations6. All those enhancements have helped over the years! Despite baseless conjecture on social media, the levees appear to be holding. The river crested at 18.64 feet yesterday7.
Unfortunately, large swaths of Muncie aren’t protected by levees or floodwalls, and pumping stations can’t do much when they’re underwater. On Wednesday, entire neighborhoods were shut down and evacuated as crews performed water rescues. It was Muncie Community Schools’ first day of class, and a video of a bus pulling up to a flooded apartment complex -water all the way up to its door- went viral8. MCS eventually closed for the day, and along with many other area schools, it remained closed Thursday.
I live on the far west side of Muncie, near Yorktown, where my home is unlikely to be in danger. Still, the rising water has disrupted both communities. Yorktown’s main intersection is impassable, while in Muncie, fifteen people had been displaced and sheltered as of Wednesday. The southern and southeastern sides of the city were hit particularly hard, including neighborhoods near the river where some friends’ homes are probably ruined. An overnight shelter opened at Grace Baptist Church a few miles down the road from me9, but even that area hasn’t escaped the flooding: nearby Heritage Hall Christian School has been dealing with water of its own.
Even though the White River crested well above the seventeen-foot mark considered major flood stage10, it’s already on its way back down- at least for now. That’s encouraging, but the effects of the flood are far from over. I’m headed to work as this post goes live, and I’m not sure how easy it’ll be to get there. Three of the four roads leading to my plant are flooded, leaving me with essentially one way in. If Buck Creek rises enough to overtop the bridge I have to cross, I might be out of luck! Yesterday, it came uncomfortably close.
After work, I followed River Road over the levee to take some photos of the flooding. I didn’t want to document damage to private homes or intrude on anyone dealing with the aftermath, so I kept my camera pointed toward public property instead. My first stop was West Side Park, where the pavilions pictured sit about ten feet below the roadway and normally stand another ten feet or so above the White River11. Yesterday, much of that twenty-foot difference had vanished beneath the floodwater.
I wasn’t the only one who came to see it. The road was lined with parked cars and pedestrians as rubberneckers stopped to take in the swollen river for themselves, though the entrance to West Side Park remained cordoned off. It was easy to see why.
It’s strange to see mature trees standing in water nearly up to their lower branches, but I encountered plenty of them at West Side. A few ducks happily paddling above the submerged landscape made the scene look more like a lake than a recreational ground.
Heading west from the park, I found another striking view at the Tillotson Avenue bridge. Trees that normally stand along the riverbank looked more like shrubs growing straight out of the current. According to county data, the bridge sits twenty-three feet above the river12. Yesterday, it seemed to fill nearly all the space beneath the bridge, and that figure was hard to believe.
The last photo I snapped was of the Nebo Road bridge near River Road and Kilgore Avenue, where the water appeared to have risen nearly to the deck. I wondered whether the road would even be passable in the morning, but I’ll find out soon enough. I can turn around if a road is flooded and go back to a dry home. Plenty of people don’t have that luxury. They’re dealing with flooded basements, ruined houses, lost belongings, and uncertainty about what comes next. I’ve been fortunate enough to experience this flood mostly through the window of a car. For many of my neighbors, there’s no driving away from it.
So far, I’m not aware of any confirmed loss of life from Muncie’s flooding. Tragically, though, that could change. On Wednesday, an eighteen-year-old reportedly jumped into the flooded Mississinewa River from the old Granville Bridge with a group of friends14. Three made it to safety, but the fourth remains missing. The river has been so dangerous that search crews have twice been forced to suspend their efforts15. I hope he’s found safe, and that this flood passes without adding a human life to everything the water has already taken.
Muncie has spent nearly ninety years reshaping the White River and building infrastructure designed to prevent another disaster like the flood of 1913. Those projects have made a difference, but floods like this are reminders that there’s only so much levees, walls, channels, and pumps can do when enough water falls at once. I’ve been fortunate to watch most of this unfold from a safe vantage point, but for many, the past week has meant evacuations, rescues, ruin, and an uncertain road ahead. Seeing the river at a historic height is fascinating, but this isn’t history yet- it’s a disaster that large parts of town are still going through.
Update: unfortunately, as of August 14, one fatality has been confirmed. A fifty-eight-year-old woman and her dog were found southeast of Yorktown nearly a hundred feet west of Bell Creek Road. Authorities believe she tried driving through three feet of floodwater and was swept away16. My thoughts go out to her family.
Sources Cited
1 Czachor & Oliver (2026, August 13). Floodwaters submerge Midwest neighborhoods still bracing for more severe storms. CBS News [New York]. Web. Retrieved August 13, 2026.
2 Vespa, M. (2026, August 12). Midwest flash flood emergency triggers rescues. NBC News [New York]. Web. Retrieved August 13, 2026.
3 Slabaugh, S. (2013, March 17). Flood Of 1913 Still The Greatest. The Muncie Star Press. Pp. A1-A2.
4 Slabaugh, S. (2013, March 17). Could another great flood happen today? The Muncie Star Press. Pp. A1-A2.
5 (See footnote 4).
6 (See footnote 4).
7 White River (IN) at Muncie National Water Prediction Service. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration[Washington]. Web. Retrieved August 13, 2026.
8 Romero, M. (2026, August 13). 1st day of school. What’s Up Muncie [Facebook]. Retrieved August 13, 2026.
9 Delaware County Emergency Management Agency (2026, August 12). Delaware County Flood Emergency: Press Briefing and Public Fact Sheet [Press Release]. Web. Retrieved August 13, 2026.
10 Ohlenkamp, C. (2026, August 13). White River expected to crest at 18.9 feet as Muncie flooding worsens. The Ball State Daily News [Muncie]. Web. Retrieved August 13, 2026.
11 Parcel 1117264001000 (2026). Office of the Assessor. Delaware County [Muncie]. Web. Retrieved August 13, 2026.
12 Office of the Assessor (2026). Delaware County [Muncie]. Web. Retrieved August 13, 2026.
13 Parcel 1118401001600 (2026). Office of the Assessor. Delaware County [Muncie]. Web. Retrieved August 13, 2026.
14 Adams, M. (2026, August 13). Search for missing Delaware County 18-year-old suspended due to dangerous conditions. FOX59 [Indianapolis]. Web. Retrieved August 13, 2026.
15 White, J. (2026, August 13). 3 people rescued, 4th still missing from flooding on Mississinewa River. WISHTV [Indianapolis]. Web. Retrieved August 13, 2026.
16 Sheriff: Woman found dead in Yorktown floodwaters (2026, August 14). WTHR [Indianapolis]. Web. Retrieved August 14, 2026.
A friend of mine lives in rural Losantville (which is redundant, as there’s certainly no urban Losantville of which to speak) and he sent me a 7-second video of rainwater running down his road. He wasn’t evacuated but others not too far from him were.
It’s been bad across the state! I haven’t been to any of the neighborhoods that flooded due to topography rather than any nearby stream, but they seem mostly back to normal around here. Further down the river towards Indy wound up getting it harder.
Glad to hear that you are doing OK so far. There have been several trouble spots on the north side of Indianapolis. I saw a video of River Road that runs north from Keystone Crossing. It appears that fast moving water has destroyed the paved road.
I saw that happen in Richmond and in some other areas. It’s been especially rough in Anderson and Noblesville.