Eastern Nebraska flood drone footage

[Pistolero]

I went looking for what was happening to Brad's part of the world. I
ran into this. If I have this right, this is about 60 miles north and a bit west of Brad.
And from there he goes several steps farther north and a bit west.

I thought it was interesting. Really a lot of damage going on. There will be a whole
lot of roads really wrecked, and I am sure they have lost some bridges, too. Apparently
ice damming is a real problem, too.

another one.

Bill

 

[Brad]

A Look at the Catastrophic Flooding at Offutt Air Force Base

Extensive flooding continues to impacts the Central Plains. Nebraska was one of the hardest hit by f

www.weathernationtv.com

The animated GIF shows the normal river levels and the flooding we had over the weekend. I am about 2 miles north of Offut. We are up on the hills above the river so no flooding issues for me.

VP Pence was here yesterday seeing the damage in Iowa and Nebraska along with the governors and US senators.

 

[Rick]

Crop and livestock damage has to be pretty extensive. I wonder if it will dry out in time to even get crops in this year. Homes, roads, bridges. Plenty bad all the way around.

The widow of a friend moved to NE and has been posting pics for several days. Quite a devastating thing.

 

[Brad]

Last I heard there were 14 highway bridges out. Major road damage. Rail lines took a big hit too. Lots of rail traffic thru this part of the state, impact will be felt all over the nation from that.
Lots of cropland had topsoil stripped off by floodwaters. Saw an interview last evening with a farmer and he showed areads scoured 3-5 ft deep in fields. He had corn stubble remaining so his topsoil is pretty safe.
As our US Senator put it, we have cows on sandbars in the Platte River.

Yes Rick, this is gonna put a major bite in Nebraska ag this year. Early estimates are 400 million in lost revenue from agriculture alone.

 

[Ian]

I got a message yesterday from a friend in the petrol industry that due to incidents unrelated to flooding the price of gulf coast fuel would go up at least a quarter this week....and the ethanol trains can't get across the water up there so some areas will have to have sober gas for a while. Heard this morning three are dead from the flooding up there, hope that number doesn't climb.

 

[Pistolero]

Well, more 'sober gas' is a ray of sunshine in this mess.

Bill

 

[popper]

Fortunately the storm over KC was fast moving. Norfolk was cut off, Madison the same. I think Johnson city was the same. Don't know how the Mo & Kaw are doing, KC might get a good one this year. Yea, the tanks are still burning in Houston, major rail line along the Platt in Ne is sure to cause trouble. Friends have kids that work for Seimens and one is an engineer on that line.

 

[Bret4207]

I won't pretend to be a news hound or anything so my points of reference are limited, but I haven't seen or heard more than a blurb or 2 about this. I find this maddening. Fly over country, the nations agricultural areas, can be devastated and the news will ignore it unless something odd happens, like a minority farmer that alleges he doesn't get the same consideration as a white farmer. We saw this in '98 up here on the NY/Canadian border when 5 million people were without power in January for more than 2 weeks. It was ignored. But a neighborhood in LA that loses power overnight makes national news!

Thoughts and prayers to our citizens in the affected areas. It's devastation on a massive scale.

 

[Pistolero]

The media has been pretty much ignoring this. "Heck, this is in fly-over country, who could possibly care"
seems to be their view. The VP visited yesterday with two governors and some senators. Again, not
newsworthy, so 'it just didn't happen" as far as most people will see. A major north-south interstate
shut down, whole towns literally cut off, no way to drive in or out, north-south rail shipments blocked,
having to be rerouted. But just not news, somehow.

That is why I posted this. So little available in the "normal" media.

Bill

 

[Brad]

Local media is doing a good job of focusing on the positive stories. A grocery store where the owner couldn’t get home due to floods so she kept open and allowed a stranded city to have food they needed. She also helped cook meals for the fire dept and others helping with rescues.
First casualty was a farmer who died when tractor went under. He was going to help rescue some stranded motorists and all available fire rescue was tied up.
You may fly over us but come here to live and you will see why people stay here. Even Omaha has a small town feel. Local shelters are actually turning away donations because they are out of room for more.
We don’t turn to govt for help because our friends, family, and neighbors are already there.

 

[Pistolero]

Hell, yes. Brad. What is a local paper or TV station where I could check their web site
to get some more info on this? Since I know the area, have shot up at ENGC many times,
and have friends there, I wanted to find out what was going on. Not much to be found
on the national sites, would love to know some good local news outlets to check in with.

Bill

 

[Bret4207]

Same thing up here Brad. People think NY and they imagine NYC. The areas in the drone video are much more built upt hat around most of northern NY. Red Cross showed up 4 or 5 days into our massive outage. They got told to leave when they insisted we abandon our proven system and use theirs!

 

[Ian]

FWIW the three-point news blurb this morning on the radio mentioned the flooding (mainly the three deaths as of that time), something about the NZ thing, and a new post-partum depression drug. Nothing about the Deer Park fire or the Exxon refinery fire, which would be semi-local news to me.

 

[Brad]

Hell, yes. Brad. What is a local paper or TV station where I could check their web site
to get some more info on this? Since I know the area, have shot up at ENGC many times,
and have friends there, I wanted to find out what was going on. Not much to be found
on the national sites, would love to know some good local news outlets to check in with.

Bill

Omaha.com is the Omaha paper. Many stories can’t be read without a subscription but some are available without. KETV is the local station we watch.

We are fine with being flyover country. We also realize that had this happened on either coast it would be major national news but because Nebraska has a mere 1.3 million residents it doesn’t matter to many. We don’t spend time wondering what the big city folks will do to help because we already know that the guy around the corner we have never met was here yesterday pending a hand.

I can’t bring myself to root for Nebraska in football, and I graduated from there, but by God I will always root for the people of the state. Finer people would be hard to find.

 

[Brad]

 

[Rick]

All those folks in the big cities were they a bit smarter would appreciate those in fly over country just as soon s they start going hungry,

 

[Pistolero]

Love to see the pilots steppng up to help, too. Good for all of them.

Oh, come on, Rick. They know that food comes from the grocery store, what in the world do all
those folks in the middle of nowhere have to do with anything?


Bill

 

[Brad]

A large regional grocery chain got word that the store in afremont was running out of many items. The store execs worked with the NE state patrol and Army Guard and found a way to get 8-10 trucks over emergency repaired roads. They brought food, water, fuel, and many dry goods to a community of 28 K people who had zero road access. All major roads into the town were closed and most had major damage to bridges.

Amazing what a “Can Do” attitude can accomplish. When you don’t see obstacles but instead see opportunities life becomes much easier.

 

[462]

I can't imagine living through a flood or fire and their aftermath. The country is still mostly made of our hearty ancestors who preceded us. We are quiet, though, and not newsworthy.

Four years ago, we drove through Nebraska and Iowa on our way to visit a Viet Nam buddy in Wisconsin. We knew about corn, but were really amazed by all the soy bean fields. Seems there were more of them than corn.

As a kid, I remember watching the almost yearly television coverage of flooding along the Plate, Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, from the Spring snowmelt or rains. I quit watching television about 15 years ago, but use four on-line news sources and few have made mention of the floods. I don't agree that the lack of coverage is because of the location, but that the 24-hour news channels are more caught up with the progressive presidential candidates.

My wife and I did Red Cross volunteering for two years, after 9-11, but quit when the local chapter began taking advantage of our time. I think the idea behind the organization is good, but it can, and has been, very political. We saw a lot of waste of donated goods and supplies, as well as people not in need taking advantage of the offerings at the expense of those who desperately needed them.

 

[Pistolero]

Very good to see folks pulling together and getting things done.

Bill