A U.S. flag dries on a clothesline after a 1993 flood in Iowa. Already saturated, Des Moines received a downpour of 8 inches (20.32 centimeters) of rain in just four hours. The result was a wall of water, 15 feet (4.5 meters) above flood level, barreling through the city.
(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Des Moines, Iowa: Riding Out the Worst of Times," January 1994, National Geographic magazine)
