Ten Years Following 2011 Floods, Flood Control Being Evaluated

Ten years ago this month, the Missouri River flooded, leaving parts of Nebraska and other Midwest states underwater. The interior portion of Nebraska, or the part of the state not along the Missouri River, also flooded.

The same thing happened in 2019 and it hit the communities on the interior portion of the state even worse. In total, 4,000 homes were affected and millions of dollars in recovery efforts were needed.

Nebraska Emergency Management Agency’s Assistant Director, Bryan Tuma, says there’s a study being done to evaluate flood control infrastructure.

“The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers I think is at the request of the four governors of Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri…what are some of the issues that they have to identify, so that we don’t have the devastating flooding that we experienced in 2011, 2019,” Tuma said.

Flood control structures were in need of repair following the floods. The same can be said about certain road bridges in Nebraska.

There are many reasons these floods happened. Significant rain combined with snow melting in the Rocky Mountains lead to water levels that the dams couldn’t hold.

Below the dams, the Rocky Mountain snow melt and heavy rains overflowed the usually low Platte River in 2019.