Wade Rice recalls overhearing his mom on the phone talking to his dad. “It’s all gone,” Don Rice told his wife Phyllis. 

Don was referring to the devastation left behind from the flood that raged through Rapid City that night killing 238 people and destroying hundreds of businesses along the city’s main corridors including the Rice family business. “I wondered what went through my mom’s mind. What’s the definition of ‘it’s all gone?’ Was there a foot of water in the store? But it was a complete loss,” said Wade who had just celebrated his 9th birthday a day before the flood. 

“After the dam broke, the water came through and washed up on M Hill and when it came back across the road it was supposedly a 13-foot wall of water that went through the showroom doors.” Don, some of his employees, and a woman they saved from a nearby apartment found safety on the second floor of the Rice’s concrete building. 

Don spent the entire night watching as over a decade of hard work washed down Rapid Creek. 

In 1955, Don started servicing and selling motorcycles out of his garage. The business was instantly a success and quickly outgrew the confines of the Rice’s garage. They moved a few times before ending up on some land outside the city center where Chili’s Grill & Bar is now located. “At that point, he was working on getting the Honda car franchise, but they said car dealerships are in cities, not along interstates. My dad was ahead of his time,” Wade said pointing to the fact that nearly all dealerships are now located near Interstate-90. Don could only get the Honda franchise if he moved his business into the city. Which he did. 

Don moved his fleet onto Omaha Street, a thriving business corridor. “Omaha was the most expensive street to have a business on, and it was the place to be,” Wade said. “People my dad’s age and down to people my age really got a taste of what it was like versus what it is like today. Most people have no idea what it was like driving down that street when all those businesses were flourishing.” 

Don’s two-story showroom was located where the Omaha Street Disc Golf course is now. 

It seemed like an ideal location to grow the family business. “My dad was four months away from owning additional property three or four blocks around the existing dealership. He had Toyota and Honda along with the motorcycles,” Wade said. 

That business plan, however, took a dramatic turn when the dark clouds set in on June 9, 1972. It was a Friday night and Wade had plans to celebrate his birthday with some friends going to Mr. Steak for dinner and then the car races. “We were a big car racing family,” he said adding that the family business sponsored a race car, and they routinely attended the Friday nice races. The races were canceled and as the family traveled back Wade remembers the black cloud that hovered over the city. “The cloud was the darkest cloud I have ever seen. We were bummed out and for some reason on the way home, we stopped by Storybook Island. We could see the water rising and went home.”

When they got home, Wade and his friends, not realizing the destruction to come, were playing out in the rising water outside the family’s Yucca Drive home. “We were playing in it like idiots,” Wade said. “There was probably two feet of asphalt that wasn’t covered by water. The water kept coming and coming. I don’t think we would have drowned that night playing out in the water but if you tripped and fell at any time there would have been a rush of water.”

Meanwhile, Don, along with some friends and employees stopped, at the dealership after the canceled car races. With the water rising and the rain continuing to pour down, Don and his crew were stuck along Omaha. “There were some apartments behind the dealership, and they found one woman holding on to a pole. They grabbed her and brought her in. Everything was so strange. My dad nearly got swept away. They heard stuff that night you can’t unhear. There are a lot of people that were saved, but there were neighbors who were never found.” 

The business was a complete loss – desks, motorcycles, and vehicles, all swept away by the floodwaters. “I am sure people got some free motorcycles. There was a lot we couldn’t locate,” Wade said. “I didn’t go down to the dealership for two weeks and still there were piles of mud everywhere and a horrible smell. It’s a smell you just can’t get out of your mind. I remember the big vertical Toyota sign was bent over,” he added. 

“On the other side of Omaha Street there were houses and businesses. It was just all gone.” 

Amid the mud and other debris were a few floor safes that avoided the fateful waters that night. Wade’s mom took whatever money they could salvage, laid the bills out on a cookie sheet, and put them in the oven to dry. 

Without flood insurance, rebuilding the family business would not be easy, but the Rice family, with Don at the helm was determined to do just that. “The government let businesses borrow money at a low-interest rate and that is what helped the family start over.” 

Friends along with customers who attended the annual Sturgis Rally helped clean debris and mud and Honda shipped the family an $8,000-starter package. “That effort and help you just can’t repay. It was just out of the goodness of their hearts.”

Rice’s Rapid Motorsports stayed in their flooded out showroom for about a year before having to move out of the floodplain and then moved to a building where J&J’s Truck & Auto Body is now located. “That place had no running water. We used outhouses,” Wade said. “It was horrible.” 

The Rice family built two other buildings including one on Campbell before opening at their current location on East Mall Drive in 2018, a property on much higher ground. 

Wade, who took over ownership 11 years ago, said his parents worked hard to start the business and then rebuild it after the catastrophic flood creating a family legacy that has survived more than 50 years. That determination has been passed down to Wade and now his children, Garrett and Reed, who plan to carry on that legacy no matter what obstacles lie ahead.