U.S. vice president to tour Nebraska flood zone

[March 19, 2019]    (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is due to travel to Nebraska on Tuesday to tour the devastation left by floods in the Midwest which have killed at least four people and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.

Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a meeting at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Advanced Training Facility in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, U.S., March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Media reports including CNN say that 74 of Nebraska's 93 counties had declared states of emergency by early Tuesday.

"This is clearly the most widespread disaster we have had in our state's history," in terms of sheer size, Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts told reporters on Monday afternoon.

Ricketts will join Pence as he surveys the damage, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said on Twitter late on Monday. Pence is traveling at U.S. President Donald Trump's request, she said.

The flood waters have been driven by snow melt from heavy rains last week and warm temperatures, said Bob Oravec, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center.

"Most of the snow pack in Nebraska is now gone, but up river in North and South Dakota, there's significant snow pack of up to 20 plus inches and it's melting," he said.

The Missouri River, the longest in North America, has flooded much of Nebraska between Omaha and Kansas City at the Missouri state line.

The river was expected to crest at more than 47 feet (14.5 meters) on Tuesday, breaking the previous record, set in 2011, by more than a foot, the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency said in the latest bulletin on its web page.

At least one person was missing on Monday in addition to the four reported deaths, which included one person in Iowa who was rescued from floodwaters, but later succumbed to injuries, media reports said.

State officials said Monday that 290 people had been rescued by the Nebraska State Patrol, National Guard troops, and urban search and rescue teams.

Damage to the state's livestock sector was estimated at about $400 million, while the full impact on the spring planting season was not yet clear, said Steve Wellman, director of the Nebraska Department of Agriculture.

The state's highway system suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, said Kyle Schneweis, director of the state Department of Transportation.

(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta, Gina Cherelus in New York, and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Alison Williams and Catherine Evans)

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