Flood in Madison County, Nebraska

Rainfall of at least 3 to 5 inches fell over much of the upper Elkhorn River basin in the week ending 7am 6/12. This caused record or near record flooding along the Elkhorn River from around Clearwater and Neligh downstream to the Elkhorn's confluence with the Platte River. The flooding was prolonged and intensified by additional rains the next few days. In Madison county many gravel roads along the Elkhorn were flooded as were Highways 81 and 275 near and west of Norfolk which were closed for a while. On 6/15 a railroad bridge just southwest of Norfolk washed away with 3 people on it that were assessing possible damage. One person was drowned, the 2 others were rescued. Another railroad bridge west of Norfolk and several sections of the Cowboy Trail bike trail was washed out. A levee just south of Norfolk helped prevent major damage, but some damage was noted to businesses and nearly 70 homes on the south part of town despite sandbagging. In addition a park on the south side of town received extensive damage. Farmland along the river sustained crop damage and had sand deposited on fields by the receding river. The Elkhorn River near Norfolk reached a record crest of around 16.9 feet during the evening of 6/16, flood stage is 12 feet. The river at Norfolk was above flood stage from the early morning hours of June 15th until mid evening on the 17th, although flooding likely started earlier upstream of the levee near Norfolk.

An upper level trough over the western U.S. pushed a cold front into central Nebraska during the overnight hours of June 11th and 12th. This system brought scattered heavy-rain producing thunderstorms to eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. For many areas it was the 3rd day-in-a-row with significant or heavy rain. Many locations from central into northeast Nebraska received 3 to 4 inches or more rainfall in the 72 hours ending the morning of the 12th. This additional heavy rain fell on saturated soils from rainfall prior to the 10th and prolonged, intensified or increased the coverage of flooding across eastern Nebraska and helped shift the flooding to larger rivers. Flood damage over Nebraska in mid to late June amounted to at least 20 million dollars to public property alone and which did not account for damage to private property or crops. The White House declared a federal disaster for 53 counties in Nebraska for June flooding.