Keith Glewen, extension educator, University of Nebraska, is in the eastern part of the state (40 miles west of Omaha) where the main crops are corn and soybeans.
“This is flood plain; these farms are along rivers and streams, so flooding is something they’ve experienced before, but this particular event was more devastating—something that only happens once every 500 years. It was the perfect storm; we had a lot of cold weather and the ground was frozen so everything ran off. There was no infiltration, and even if there was, we already had a full profile of moisture with good rains last fall. The ground was already saturated,” he said.
The ground was frozen when region got more than a foot of snow followed by 1-2 inches of rainfall and 50 to 60-degree temperatures. The snow melted within a matter of hours.
“The rivers were covered in 8-12 inches of ice, then the floodwater broke up the ice and there were huge chunks of ice traveling down the river at high speed—decimating bridges and everything in its path. On certain farms the river changed course, made a new channel, and cut away some areas that now must be repaired,” Glewen described.
“In other areas the water and ice scoured new paths over the fields, taking trees with it, leaving a lot of trees and cornstalks scattered over fields and pastures. Fences were destroyed or collected all those cornstalks. We used snowplows to clear cornstalks off the roads. Right now, there are huge drifts/piles of cornstalks along some of the roads and highways. The water was 11 feet above flood stage, and so deep that there are cornstalks up in the trees. There was a lot of silt deposited, so we have ditches full of silt and highways that had to be uncovered. The water washed away all the gravel from country roads so now they are just mud, and most of the bridges are gone,” he says.
Farmers will have to do some land leveling and field work to get their fields back in shape.
“One of the big difficulties will be access to some of fields, with the loss of roads and bridges. Cleanup in the fields will be a major issue for some.”
In 2011 there was a big flood on the Missouri River due to all the rain in the upper watershed in Montana and North Dakota.
“That flood was devastating to anyone farming along the Missouri River, but this flood was even more devastating,” says Glewen. — Heather Smith Thomas,WLJ correspondent
