capital city, des moines. to learn more about the cities on our 2014 tour, visit www.c-span.org/local content. we continue with our look at the history of the mowing. this is american history tv on c-span3. for thes surreal longest time. that first 24 hours, when the water started coming up -- like i said, we knew there would be flooding. we had had flooding before. the people started talking about how this was not going to be like any flood we have ever experienced. we were covering some of the floods before. it was a nice break that saturday night. then all hell broke loose. all hell broke loose. the confluence of the des moines river and the raccoon river is really the center point of the city, not only geographically but also historically. that is where the city started,

with fort des moines. it was built at the confluence of the des moines and raccoon rivers. , kind ofaphy in termsg feeds there of water in the central part of the state. in iowa is not all that uncommon, when you take a look at the snowpack, the snow melt that comes off in the spring. and usually some rain showers and things like that. it is not unusual to get low and flooding -- low-end flooding. for 1993,ng scenario even goes back to 1992 in the fall and the fact that we were getting a lot of snow in the winter months.

we were getting a lot of rain in the spring. everything was starting to get saturated. when you have a lot of snow and you have a lot of rain and then maybe the ground is still frozen, that water does not saturate the ground, it just runs right off and runs into the rivers and runs downstream. buildup ofs gradual various forms of moisture. snow melt and rain that was starting to fill up the rivers and fill up the lakes and reservoirs. it was not just in iowa. it was throughout the midwest. everything was just starting to fill up. it did not have anywhere to go. in terms of the traditional ways of getting rid of water. river wassippi getting high. the missouri river was getting high. the des moines river and other rivers were running high.

that is not necessarily a bad thing. but then we started having bad things. we started having real heavy rain. we do not have anywhere to go. the reservoir started to fill up. in july, we started having pockets of really intense rainstorms. to use the old movie title, it was the perfect storm for something like this to happen. we knew the flooding was bad, but we did not know how bad it was going to be. i happened to be at a dinner that night and the governor was also at that dinner. i was getting messages from the newsroom saying, they have prix, a racegrand through the streets of des moines, a car race. i went over and told the governor that. this was a pretty big event for the city of des moines. they had canceled the because they were concerned that the

water was going to go over the bridges. level, it was very important. they had emergency management operations set up over in the hoover building. that was all put into operation immediately when it got to that point that things are getting serious. who was the focal point person in all of this. the director of the des moines waterworks. -- i said, the story is that we might lose the water. out 3:30 this morning, we ended up losing the battle of keeping the raccoon river out of the treatment plant. >> as a result of the rise, the river flowed into the treatment went and actually submerged the treatment plant within the river. >> when you hear that, when i first heard that, i heard we had

lost our water and i thought, it is like losing your electricity. we will do without and then get it back in a day or so. it is like, no, it is totally different with water. if the water treatment plant is contaminated, the whole system is contaminated. it was not like you could light a lantern or a candle or something like that when the electricity goes out. when your water goes out, there's no water in your pipes. there's no water in your toilet. there is no water in your house. all of a sudden it started to sink in. i said,r. mcmullen -- this is really bad, isn't it? he said, it will be really bad ear and will have 250,000 -- bad. whowill have 250,000 people don't have water. ld mcmullen became the person upon whom all was focused. he was the one who kind of led the charge to get the water back

on, because that was affecting most of us. the city itself had a lot of flooding in the low-lying areas, the downtown area and the area south of downtown. the real impact was the loss of water. the president came. he had been in iowa about a week before. he was over a long the mississippi in devonport. when des moines got hit and lost its water, the president was back, andmedia was there were some very touching moments for the president when people came up and he heard stories of what they had lost. one lady in particular said something like, i can't take it anymore. it was a sincere moment. it wasn't politically staged or anything like that.

i think it affected him. he told me he was very impressed by what he saw going on there, but what he saw in the community. one of the things that impressed me more than anything else -- we did not have water. they trucked water in. the national guard would truck water in in these huge tanker trucks, kind of like you would see driving down the highway, hauling gasoline. these were huge tanker trucks. at awould park the truck high school or a shopping mall, and people would come up with her bottles and whatnot. what i recall more than anything else is how these areas of water distribution became like town squares 100 50 years ago. people would meet there. neighbors would get together and exchange news. they would talk about what was going on in their neighborhoods and their parts of the city. come fornot just

water. certainly many of them did. but a lot of them would stick around for hours at a time, seeing people, talking to people. >> last night at about 1:00, we were trying to bring online our little pump that was going to fill the system and in bringing it up, it failed. >> the efforts that went into fixing the des moines waterworks -- it lookednt like a war zone down there. helicopters flying in these big motors and pumps and things like this. the national guard helicopters throwing sandbags down onto levees and stuff. it was impressive. it was frightening in many ways to see this happening, and these familiar places in your own city -- it was downright scary. it was also really impressive. central was the fuller

drive bridge. they had more people down there that they could put to work. they could not save the waterworks grade the waterworks was all underwater. that particular area became sandbag central. people would show up there for days and days on end just to fill sandbags. havelieve it or not, we made it. we can drink from the tap. safe for all consumption. babies, dogs, the elderly and the young. >> it was one of the greatest moments when ld mcmullen announced that we were getting our water back. a week later, that we could drink our water. the city was divided up into zones. a could do this at this time on this day. his own b -- zone b could do this at this time on this day. eventually they brought the

whole thing back online. i think there are a lot of people here who have a lot more respect for those rivers then maybe they did 21 years ago. just athat, it's not fearful type of respect, but also an admirable respect too. these are the lifeblood. these are the veins of the community. and now, within the past 5, 10 years, the river is becoming a focal point of the city again. it is kind of getting back to maybe what the city was 150 years ago or so, when the river was the reason we were here. kind of neat. the henry a.

wallace country life center, which is 50 miles south and west of des moines. this is the birthplace home of henry a. wallace. the wallaces of iowa consist of three generations of wallaces. the patriarch was known fondly as uncle henry. was the founder of wallace's former magazine. was u.s. secretary of agriculture under woodrow was bornnd henry's son on this farm in 1888. he went on to become editor of wallace's farmer magazine. he was asked by franklin roosevelt to serve as u.s. secretary of agriculture, which he did for eight years. 1945, he was roosevelt's vice president as u.s. -- president. agriculture, and it was

the first time farmers were asked not to produce. at first, people could not believe the things he was proposing regarding that. prices went up, they started to listen to him. people still refer to him today as the genius secretary of agriculture. >> explore the history and literary life of des moines, iowa throughout the weekend on c-span two's booktv and sunday afternoon at 2:00 eastern on american history tv on c-span three. 40 years ago this july, the supreme court considered whether president nixon could claim executive privilege over his oval office recordings. tapes sought by the watergate special prosecutor. nixon wastates versus argued on july 8, 1974 and july did -- decided on july 24.

hear the, we will three-hour oral argument from the court chamber. case, we talk about the with evan davis. he served as watergate and cover-up task force later on the house judiciary committee's impeachment inquiry staff. this conversation is about 10 minutes. >> joining us is evan davis as keyook back 40 years at a u.s. supreme court ruling on the watergate case. thank you for being with us on american history television. >> i am glad to be here. >> take us back to the supreme court oral arguments, july 1970 four. of what is the issue the court was about to decide and what are the key players? whether thessue was president had to turn over tape recordings that have been