Flash Flood — Boyd, Nebraska

2019-03-14 · near Monowi, Boyd, Nebraska

Event narrative

Heavy rain on top of frozen ground, rivers and streams led to historical runoff on the Niobrara River downstream of the Norden river crossing. At 6:46 AM CDT Holt County Dispatch reported the failure of Spencer Dam. A series of ice jams that developed upstream broke loose that led to a wall of water, large blocks of ice and debris that moved downstream to destroy the dam structure with flood waters to destroy the south bridge abutment on U.S. Highway 281 and the campground, bar and home immediately downstream of the dam. The flood caused one fatality.

Wider weather episode

Historical flooding occurred in north central Nebraska as rivers, creeks and other streams rose due to the combination of snow, rain, and rapid snow melt on top of frozen ground. The greatest flooding occurred along the Niobrara, Keya Paha, Elkhorn and Loup Rivers; Ponca, Long Pine, Victoria and Cedar creeks; and one fatality occurred from the failure of Spencer Dam that is located on the Niobrara River. In addition to the Spencer Dam failure, several privately owned dams failed. The failure of these private dams contributed to additional overland flooding and most likely exacerbated the flooding in localized areas that led to community evacuations. The combination of weather elements on ice in the rivers led to increased runoff and rapid breakup of ice. Large ice chucks on several rivers destroyed or damaged river bridges, to include state, county and private owned bridges in several counties.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (42.7370, -98.2240)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 813018. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.