Nebraska Flooding

While Bob and Susie were in Chicago we got crazy weather! It was really cold and then it warmed up enough to rain instead of snow but we got a ton of rain. Lincoln got a 3 inch down pour in a matter of hours. This was a recipe for disaster all over. The ground was still frozen so no water could soak in. Gutters and down spouts were frozen so water was getting in houses and basements. The large amount of snow we had piled up from a large snowstorm a week earlier also started to melt. There was water everywhere! Norfolk had went into a flood warning and it escalated quickly into an evacuation order for all of low lying Norfolk which included Steph and her family and Mom. I had talked to Steph the night before and she was in tears because their basement that they had started to renovate was flooding with muddy water and the water just kept coming. At work she was taking calls from people who were floating away in cars and there was a tragic death of a fire fighters brother who had drove into a flooded area and been washed away. Norfolk was declaring a state of emergency and the worst part was no roads were open to get there. We couldn't even get there to help them clean up the basement. The next morning I got a frantic call early in the morning that all low lying areas of Norfolk needed to immediately evacuate because they were worried that the levee was going to breech. After a couple quick phone calls I got a hold of Bob and Susie (they weren't in the evacuation zone) to see if Steph, Lester the dogs and my mom could all go stay at their house while they were away. I knew this was a ton to ask but I felt so helpless! They of course agreed and they all spent the next 2 days at the Lutz's house until things got back to a safe level in Norfolk. The flooding devastated so many areas of the Midwest! Roads into Iowa are still closed 9 months later and so many people lost livestock, fields and homes. The pictures and stories are hard to hear of how bad it got in some areas. The bridge by Niobrara was closed and the Spencer dam gave way sending truck size ice chunks flooding through towns and rural areas. Lincoln wasn't hugely affected by the flooding since we aren't bordered by any major bodies of water, but all of Lincoln's water supply comes from Ashland and at one point it became a huge concern as to if we would be able to continue to get water from the Ashland plant. The large amount of debris in the water knocked out a couple of the wells and at one point they only had enough water stored for Lincoln for one day. At the time they didn't let onto how bad this could be but Lincoln first went into a voluntary water conservation plan where they urged people to not wash clothes or run dishwashers. 8 hours later they were mandating that businesses that relied heavily on water usage shut down. They had banned laundry, dishwashers, urged people not to shower and not to flush the toilet. Then people panicked. Bottled water was flying off the shelf like crazy! Restaurants were serving food on all paper products and even hospitals were ordered to decrease water usage by 25% and household by at least 50%. This is about the only time I have been thankful that we have rural water. That only last 2 days and then things were up and running I had just never had a water crisis happen. It was pretty crazy.