Flood — Platte, Nebraska

2019-03-13 to 2019-03-17 · near Monroe, Platte, Nebraska

Event narrative

This is for flooding along the Loup River. The river gage at Columbus, operated by the Nebraska DNR, peaked at 19.39 feet at 5 am on March 15th. Major flood stage is 20 feet. Preliminary this peak is the 2nd highest on record. This flooding caused substantial damage to the area, specifically on the river side of the levee around Columbus. This damage was the result of both ice jam and open water flooding. Several businesses and homes were destroyed and many people needed to be rescued. The water got within 1 to 2 feet of the top of the levee and never got into Columbus. One woman was killed by flood waters in her home. Rescuers could not get to her home due to extreme weather conditions. Property damage amounts represent amounts for the entire county.

Wider weather episode

A 971mb bomb cyclone moved out of the central Rockies on Wednesday, March 13, 2019 and helped to create widespread, moderate to major, and in many cases historic, flooding across eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. From 4 to 15 inches of snow cover remained across the mid Missouri River valley, and the ground was frozen with existing frost depths of 15 to 23 inches. Warm temperatures allowed all of the snow to rapidly melt and record moisture allowed 1 to 2.5 inches of rain to fall over a 48 hour period. Due to the frozen ground, and that 1 to 2 feet of thick ice remained in area rivers, widespread, and in many cases, catastrophic flooding developed. Due to expansive levee breaches on many rivers and streams, the flood damage was particularly devastating to many communities. Four individuals lost their lives due to the extreme conditions, and several hundred people required rescue via air or boat. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes or businesses. Nearly 50 levees were breached on the Platte, Elkhorn and Missouri Rivers due to the large volume of water. One such levee breach along the Platte River near Leshara, Nebraska forced the evacuation of National Weather Service Omaha, located in Valley, Nebraska for 8 days. Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts presented US$1.3 billion preliminary damage estimates for the entire state, including specific sector losses of: $439 million infrastructure (including roads and bridges), $85 million private homes and businesses, $400 million livestock and $440 million crop. About 2,000 miles of state roads including 15 Nebraska state highway bridges and numerous local bridges, roughly 20 percent of the entire state road system were impacted. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds provided a $1.6 billion preliminary damage estimate due to flooding across the state. U.S. Interstate 29, extending north-south along the Missouri River, was inundated and partially destroyed, as was the Interstate 680 bypass around Council Bluffs-Omaha metropolitan area. Also noteworthy was damage to Offutt Air Force Base located near Bellevue, Nebraska. One-third of the base's main runway was inundated, along with one-third of Offutt's buildings, with several hundred employees, and several families displaced. Preliminary damage estimates released by the Department of Defense are on the order of $450 million. Nebraska and Iowa severe flooding impacts culminated in Federal Disaster Declaration 4420.

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Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 813963. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.