A storm dumped 8 inches of rain on a Nebraska town. Officials say a dam prevented widespread damage

A severe storm dumped around 8 inches of rain near a small Nebraska town in Morrill County earlier this month.

The storm system could have been catastrophic for Bayard, which has more than 1,000 residents, but officials said a dam system that’s been in place for several decades may have saved the area from having to evacuate.

“This storm demonstrated exactly why watershed infrastructure remains so important to communities across western Nebraska,” Scott Schaneman, North Platte Natural Resources District General Manager, said in a press release. “While residents may not see these structures every day, these dams quietly protect homes, infrastructure and public safety during intense rainfall events.”

A press release from the Nebraska Association of Resources Districts stated that up to 8 inches of rainfall was reported in the Wildhorse Drain watershed around 10 miles north of Bayard from June 8-9.

The storm damaged infrastructure throughout the watershed, including county roads, drainage ditches, irrigation canals, and bridges, but the Wildhorse flood control structures performed as designed, mitigating further damage.

The dams captured floodwater, reducing erosion and flood damage. Officials estimated the flood control structures prevented nearly $400,000 in flood damage from the storm and helped prevent evacuations downstream.

“Farmers Irrigation District employees were checking the dams every hour during the rainstorm and there was no real cause for concern,” Nebraska Department of Water, Energy, and Environment Chief Dam Safety Engineer Tim Gokie said. “The Wildhorse dams performed exactly as they were designed, and they likely saved Bayard from significant flooding that could have damaged homes and businesses.”

The Wildhorse flood control dams were constructed over a nine-year period starting in 1959 to protect Bayard from damaging floods by capturing stormwater runoff and releasing it at a controlled rate downstream.

The watershed structures are owned and maintained by the city of Bayard, Pathfinder Irrigation District and Farmers Irrigation District, which maintain the systems.