Historic Flooding in Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa Kills 3, Cuts Off Entire Towns, Ruins 500 Homes in One County Alone
At a Glance
Three people have been killed in the historic flooding; two others are missing.
Offutt Air Force Base, home to U.S. Strategic Command, is fighting floodwaters.
Water is 6 to 7 feet deep in some homes in Holt County, Missouri.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says 200 miles of levees have been compromised.
Rivers have reached historic levels in 41 locations across the Midwest, creating devastating flooding that has killed at least three people, forced countless evacuations, breached dams and levees, damaged hundreds of homes and flooded parts of a military base.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers told the Associated Press that 200 miles of levees have been topped or breached in Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas.
The death toll from the flooding has risen to three. Two people from Columbus, Nebraska, died last week: a woman trapped in her home by floodwaters and a farmer attempting a rescue in high water, according to the Platte County Sheriff's Office. A Norfolk, Nebraska, man died and two others were injured when they drove around a flood barrier in Fremont County, Iowa, on Friday and were swept away, according to the Fremont County Sheriff's Office. (MORE: Where the Rivers Rose to Record Levels)
The city of Valley is inundated with floodwaters Sunday, March 17, 2019, in Valley, Nebraska.
(Jeff Bundy/Omaha World-Herald via AP)
Two other men are missing and presumed dead in Nebraska.
The deaths add weight to the grim statistics in the ongoing flood disaster. On Sunday, the Sarpy County Nebraska Sheriff's office said that at least 500 homes were ruined by floodwaters that overtopped two levees in the county.
The total number of homes and businesses lost in the disaster is likely much greater.
Shortly after noon Monday CDT, Atchison County Emergency Management urged residents of Watson, Missouri, to evacuate when the Missouri State Highway Patrol reported that water was washing over the Nishnabotna River and and High Creek levees. The county also saidlevees on the Missouri River west of Watson had two breaches.
Monday morning, Tom Bullock, Emergency Management director for Holt County, Missouri, said many homes there were filled with 6 to 7 feet of water. A levee south of Fortescue, Missouri, was overtopped about 7:30 Sunday night. Several other levees along the Missouri side of the river were breached, too.
Interstate 29 was underwater in places and was closed from just south of Watson, Missouri, to Loveland, Nebraska.
The entire town of Pacific Junction, Iowa, was ordered to evacuate late Sunday because of two levee failures and a confirmed levee breach on the Missouri River, the Mills County Sheriff's Office reported. Gas and electricity were cut off to the town.
Mayor Andy Young said most residents in the town of 480 don't have flood insurance. "We are going to have to rely on the federal government for assistance. Not sure what that will mean," Young told the Omaha World-Herald. "This is going to be tough, with all the damage to homes."
Anthony Thomson, left, and Melody Walton make their way out of a flooded neighborhood Sunday, March 17, 2019, in Fremont, Nebraska.
(Kent Sievers/Omaha World-Herald via AP)
On the other side of the river across from Pacific Junction, Offutt Air Force Base wasrestricted to "mission essential personnel" on Sunday after about a third of the base was cut off by rising floodwaters. Thirty buildings at the base south of Omaha have been inundated with as much as 8 feet of water, Tech. Sgt. Rachelle Blake, a 55th Wing spokeswoman, told the World-Herald.
Nevertheless, normal personnel operations were expected to resume Tuesday, the base's Twitter account announced.
Thurman, Iowa, began evacuations about 7:30 a.m. Sunday EDT as fast moving water approached the town in the southwest corner of the state. The National Weather Service said the flooding was likely the result of levee breaches on the Missouri River. Areas of other Iowa towns had already evacuated, including Hamburg, Percival, McPaul and Bartlett.
Shortly after 3 p.m. Sunday, water topped a levee west of Hamburg as residents filled sandbags to build a retaining wall.
Seventy-year-old Lana Brandt has lived in Hamburg all her live. She said people from as far away as Omaha came to help with the sandbags.
“We’re an older community, so many of us can’t do sandbags anymore,” Brandt told the World-Herald. “We count on people helping us.”
“We all take care of each other. We were all rubbing elbows, bagging sand together, helping each other out,” said Taylor Parton, 67, who has lived in Hamburg for three years. (MORE: Offutt Air Force Base Inundated by Floodwaters)
In St. Joseph, Missouri, where the river is expected to crest at 30.1 feet this week, city officials asked volunteers to help fill sandbags. The goal, city spokesperson Mary Robinson told WDAF-TV, was to have 150,000 sandbags by Tuesday to add a 2-foot wall to the levee.
Farther downstream, the Missouri is expected to crest above major flood stage in Atchison, Kansas, and just below that stage in Leavenworth, according to the National Weather Service. In Kansas City, where banks and levees are higher, it’s projected to crest at 32.4 feet, which is just above minor flood stage.
Health officials in Missouri are warning that the floodwaters could contain untreated sewage and hazardous chemicals and debris.
“It is vital that everyone working near floodwaters realizes the risks that exist,” Randall Williams, Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services director, told the Kansas City Star on Monday. “Just as driving in moving or standing water is dangerous, wading in floodwaters or exposure while recovering from a flood can pose health risks.” (MORE: Before-and-After Images Show Ongoing Flood Disaster in Nebraska)
Douglas County West Community Schools in Valley, Nebraska, are closed for the week, the World-Herald reports. Many families in the district, which has about 980 students, have been evacuated from their homes, Superintendent Melissa Poloncic said.
Earlier in the weekend, flooding from the Elkhorn and Platte rivers turned Nebraska's sixth largest city into "an island." Fremont, Nebraska, which lies about 40 miles northwest of Omaha and is home to more than 26,000 residents, was cut off from the rest of the state Saturday when two levees were breached northwest of the city. Volunteers have spent much the weekend filling sandbags and lining them up to block water, the Fremont Tribune reported.
By Monday evening, Highway 36 into Fremont was reopened, giving residents a chance to return and survey the damage.
Volunteers also helped set up shelters; Spanish teachers translated for those who didn't speak English, and cooks at the Hy-Vee grocery store worked with the American Red Cross to feed stranded people, the Omaha World-Herald reported. A pilot from Lincoln, Nebraska, landed at Freemont's airport to give three meat cutters at the WholeStone Farms plant a lift home, where they each had children waiting.
“As long as we can help other people, that’s what we’re doing,” Adam Hunnel said.
The Elkhorn River consumes a section of western Douglas County Sunday, May 17, 2019, in Omaha, Nebraska.
(Jeff Bundy/Omaha World-Herald via AP)
Mike Wight, public information officer for the Nebraska Emergency Management Office, toldweather.com they are keeping a close eye on the situation in Fremont.
The rising Missouri River in the town of Brownville, Nebraska, meant officials were prepared to shut down the Cooper Nuclear Power Station if it was needed, according to a press release.
Wight told weather.com there is "concern" for the nuclear plant but emphasized that it "is perfectly safe."
"We don't expect any safety issues but we do expect they will get flooding around them and if it gets too far they will shut it down," Wight said, adding that it will not be an "issue with power supply" because they can get power from other sources within the grid.
On Monday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it has inspectors at the plant and it continues to operate at full power. (MORE: Flooding Worsens in the Plains, Midwest)
On Saturday, Black Hawk helicopters were dropping 1.5-ton sandbags to protect wells that serve the city of Lincoln, home to more than 284,000 people. The wells are located on an island in the rising Platte River.
After surveying the extensive flooding from the air, Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts said in a Friday press conference that it was the "most widespread flooding damage we've had in the last half-century."
"Even when we were away from the water system, we saw that the fields were very saturated," he added.
The U.S. Coast Guard closed all traffic Friday on a 70-mile stretch of the Missouri River from 50 miles south of Omaha, Nebraska, to St. Joseph, Missouri. Three Dead, Others Missing
A Nebraska farmer identified as James Wilke, 50, was killed Thursday after the tractor he was using to attempt to rescue a stranded motorist was carried away by floodwaters, the Omaha World-Herald reported. The incident occurred at Shell Creek near Columbus in eastern Nebraska.
Betty Hamernik, 80, also of rural Columbus, died after rescuers weren't unable to reach her home where she was trapped Thursday because of fast current, high waves and gusting winds, according to released information from the Platte County Sheriff's Office. An Air National Guard helicopter also was unable to save her. The next day, a rescue crew found her body in the home, but they were unable to remove it. A sheriff’s office dive team retrieved her body on Saturday.
A 55-year-old Nebraska man died Friday night after being trapped by flooding in Riverton, Iowa, the Des Moines Register reported. Aleido Rojas Galan of Norfolk, Nebraska, and two other men were in a car that was swept away by floodwaters. All three were rescued, but Galan died on his way to the hospital, the Fremont County Sheriff's office said. The other two men were recovering in an Omaha hospital.
Also in Nebraska, two other men are missing and presumed dead. Scott E. Goodman, 30, of Norfolk was seen at 4 a.m. Thursday on top of his car near a levee that failed. It was reported that he was later seen being carried away by a surge of water, according to the Norfolk Daily News.
A second, unidentified man might have been swept away Thursday when the Spencer Dam collapsed on the Niobrara River.
When the dam failed, it caused a large ice floe to jam a hole in a small electrical plant, where employees were working. No other injuries were reported. The failure also forced the evacuation of dozens of residents along the river.
Chunks of ice from the Niobrara, some up to 2 feet thick, crashed into a gas station, a storage facility and a garage in the town of Niobrara, Nebraska, the World-Herald reported. The ice was left in piles 6 to 10 feet high around town.
“It’s total devastation. The ice just destroyed everything,” said Laura Sucha, who lost the Country Cafe restaurant she has owned since 2015.
Also along the Niobrara, the three bridges that connected Boyd County to the rest of Nebraska were closed. The bridges south of Butte and Spencer were closed because of the flooding, and the so-called “Mormon” bridge in Niobrara washed away.
So far, 41 locations in six states across the Midwest have set new flood crests, saidweather.com senior meteorologist Jon Erdman, noting that the flooding that is a result of recent heavy rains and snowmelt will continue into the week.
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Pilot Herb Johansen of Bennington, Neb., unloads supplies he volunteered to fly into the Fremont, Neb., airport, Monday, March 18, 2019. Walled off by massive flooding, Fremont is getting a big lift from private pilots who are offering free flights to shuttle stranded residents to and from their hometown. Authorities say flooding from the Platte River and other waterways is so bad that just one highway lane into Fremont remains uncovered, and access to that road is severely restricted. Airport officials estimate that more than 500 people have caught flights on small aircraft flown by volunteers. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
