It is too early to tell whether this year’s slow and steady devastation in the Midwest will reach the levels of a quarter century ago. But already, the situation is drawing comparisons from federal weather officials to the catastrophic events of 1993 and is sending shivers of recognition down the spines of many who survived them.

Through April and May, people who live along the Mississippi have repeated the same rituals that they did then, the grind of filling sandbags, monitoring the crest of the river and anxiously watching the rain, which has fallen at historic levels.

Levees have been breached in the last several days, forcing sudden evacuations, making roads impassable and leaving part of one town on the Mississippi underwater. More rain is expected in towns along the river later this week.

Edward Clark, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Water Center, said that 2019 and 1993 have many of the same alarming ingredients: an especially rainy fall the year before, a wet winter and heavy rains in spring.

Throughout the Midwest, soils are saturated, making it difficult for farmers to plant crops. Areas from Oklahoma to Illinois received record rainfall in the last month. Rivers are brimming over, backyards are swamped and fields are filled with water that has nowhere to go.

“In 1993, the heavy precipitation continued all the way through June,” Mr. Clark said. “In 2019, we are projecting that there will be likely above-average precipitation over the same areas of the country that are already experiencing flooding.”

That means that June and July, if they are as rainy as expected, will mean more water, more pain, more destruction.