Nebraska faced the worst flooding in the state's history.
May 7, 2019
Nebraska faced the worst flooding in the state’s history in late March of 2019. Residents across the state were ordered to evacuate from their homes in order to stay safe from flood waters. Heavy rain and fast melting snow caused the flooding in Nebraska.
To put this into perspective, 77 of 93 Nebraska counties were under a state of emergency.
“I don’t think there’s ever been a disaster this widespread in Nebraska,” Nebraska governor Pete Ricketts said while visiting Wood River, a small community about 15 miles southwest of Grand Island.
Neighboring states such as Iowa helped give flood relief to those affected by the state. Because most of the state faced damages due to flooding, numerous farms were affected by the flooding. It is expected that thousands of livestock were killed. Many farmers across the nation donated cattle and hay to the farmers that were impacted.
The term “Nebraska strong” was introduced during the extreme flood period by Governor Ricketts. “Nebraska’s response to the flooding has been incredible as neighbors have been stepping up to help one another”.
“Together, we will rebuild and keep our communities strong and growing.”
Elkhorn High School has helped participate in flood relief efforts. A few Elkhorn High students have been affected by the flooding. A food and clothing donation was done at the high school weeks ago.
“We still need to determine what organization is most in need,” Ms. Whalen, student-council advisor, said. “We intend to stay in the local area.”
“We want to wait and see what group of people has the greatest need once we hit summer,” Whalen said. “Because some organizations, thankfully, have been innovative with their donations and we wanted to make sure that it went to somebody that wasn’t seeing as much [donations].”
Elkhorn continues to see traffic as 204th and Dodge remains closed except for local residents that need to get back to their homes. It is not known when the road will open again for public use.
Nebraska Department of Transportation has estimated that $100 million in damage to Nebraska
State Highway System and $60 million in damage to local roads on federal aid routes. “At the peak of flooding 3,300 miles of road were closed due to blizzard conditions or water on the roads,” The Nebraska Department of Transportation website states. As of April 15th, only 11 miles of road are closed right now due to flood/blizzard damage.
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