While you would think we rest on a Sunday…we don’t. Disasters don’t take weekends off…therefore we don’t take weekends off.

Today we will be touring parts of Custer County and doing some damage assessments primarily from the rain from Friday (3 days ago).

Thankful that dedicated Emergency Managers like Mark who are willing to give Sundays up to assess damages in the community.

We toured about 200 miles of Custer County and we found that many of the roads were washed clear away and that recovery is being hampered by the ongoing rain. Some of the critical roadways will be rebuilt with stronger more resilient construction and allow for more flooded roadways.

We came across some roads that were….well not roads anymore. As you can see, large crevasse were created as water found its way to the lowest point in the area. This caused extensive damage in several places. Now new mitigation techniques and equipment are being put into place to solve the local flooding issues.

As we continued on our Sunday county assessment, some roads were impassible due to the overnight rains.

Yes, that is only 3-inches of rain that is flooding the roadway.

Alongside the roadway was the hopes and dreams of so many farmers…their crops submerged and rotting away.

While overlooked, the flood damage and repeated rain the area hurts the local economy as agriculture is a primary source of income for farmers in the area.

Woah.

This widespread continuous flooding impinges upon roadways too.

Without primary roadways, the residents in the neighborhood suffer from rapid access from Fire, EMS, and Police. So yes, the cascading effects of flooding is SO damaging for the entire community.

Aside from agriculture, a large portion of cattle and livestock have issues too.

So you can see, the effects for ongoing flooding are impactful for any community across America.

Much of our great country was founded on agriculture and farming so we must be cognizant of their community efforts in recovery and mitigation – both of which are long and very much a tedious process. As we continue our work, we must be mindful of the lives impacted by the initial devastating floods.

Nebraska’s continued community resiliency surprises me every day.

Proud to be serving countless disaster survivors…

Reporting live from the center of Nebraska…

@rusnivek