Missouri River flooding catches small
Nebraska town off guard
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[March 20, 2019]
By Karen Dillon
PERU, Neb. (Reuters) - When Jim and Rose
Downing heard forecasts last week for dangerously high water in their
Nebraska hometown on the Missouri River, they were nonplussed since
their house had not flooded in 100 years.
Rose is the third generation of her family to reside in the brick home
in the Gunnysack Flats neighborhood near downtown Peru, Nebraska, and 2
miles west of a levee that townspeople said never faltered in the past.
This time was different, as the fewer than 1,000 residents of Peru
discovered on Saturday when numerous Missouri River levees were breached
due to heavy rainfall and snow melt. This included the earthen barrier
near Peru, about 60 miles south of Omaha, the Army Corps of Engineers
said.
“We had only about 40 minutes" to evacuate, Rose, 57, recalled. They
scrambled when water began to infiltrate about an eighth of a mile from
the house.
“My husband was saying, ‘Get out of here, get out of here.’ As we were
backing out of the driveway, the water was coming up the driveway,” she
said.
In the scramble, the Downings managed to grab their cat, Gunk, as well
as a few clothes, a television set, a curio cabinet, bedding and their
medicines. But their most of their furniture and appliances remain in
the house, surrounded by water.
Parts of Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri have been inundated since late last
week with floods that followed a powerful winter hurricane that slammed
into America’s Farm Belt.
The deluge has killed livestock, destroyed grains and soybeans in
storage and cut off access to farms due to road and rail damage. At
least four people have been killed in the region as a result of the
flooding.
Brett Adams, 39, a soybean and corn farmer who has a couple thousand
acres on both sides of the river - which forms Nebraska's border with
Missouri - said he wasn’t too worried by the initial forecasts, either.
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Jim and Rose Downing talk after losing their home in flood waters
which caused deaths and hundreds of millions of dollars in damages,
with waters yet to crest in parts of the U.S. midwest, in Peru,
Nebraska, U.S., March 19, 2019. REUTERS/Karen Dillon
“The prediction that high water was coming wasn’t too concerning,”
Adams said. “We’ve never had water go over the levee. But two days
later, we learned the river was going to rise 15 feet and it was
full panic attack."
Adams began moving his farm machinery to higher ground.
But the Downings still felt their own house was safe. Instead of
making preparations, they said they helped Adams and other neighbors
who lived closer to the levee move their possessions.
“We were helping everybody else because we didn’t think it was going
to get us,” said Rose, who works at the local Casey’s convenience
store. Her husband works in a truck stop across the river in
Missouri.
Adams, a fourth-generation farmer, won’t have any crops this season.
The Downings are now staying with friends in an apartment near Peru
State College. They did not have flood insurance.
“I’m mentally, physically, running off adrenaline,” said Rose, as
tears pooled in her eyes. “It’s hard. It’s hard to start over at
this age.”
(Writing By Frank McGurty; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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