Nebraskaland

32 Nebraskaland • March 2020 to repeated damage caused by flooding and the high cost, it is doubtful that the trail will be repaired. With the highway closed, a commute between the park and town that took minutes now took hours, and the park struggled to find staff during the busy summer season. Damage to Highway 12 west of the park wasn't repaired until May. With access difficult, fewer people visited the park and the village, and both lost business. When a temporary bridge was completed and the highway reopened in August, the town threw a party. The Platte River crested at 4 feet above flood stage, an all-time record, on March 16 at Louisville. Fremont Lakes, Two Rivers and Louisville state recreation areas all sit on the banks of the Platte and were some of the most heavily damaged parks. At all three parks, campsites were damaged by water, sand and ice, including Two Rivers, where ice sheared off electrical pedestals in the popular Cottonwood campground. Water rose high enough at Two Rivers to spill into the 10 Union Pacific caboose cabins, and roads were washed out both in the park and leading to it. At Fremont, several roads washed out, including the one leading to the Pathfinder Campground, forcing the construction of a new access road. Staff housing and shops were damaged at all three parks, as was the office at Louisville. A new boat ramp and canoe and kayak launch at Louisville, part of the Commission's Venture Parks initiative, was heavily damaged. New launches were also damaged upriver at Schramm Park SRA and Platte River State Park, as were railings and bridge supports on the Lied Bridge, another popular trail link. The bridge, owned by the Lower Platte South Natural Resource District and managed by Game and Parks, will remain closed until debris can be removed and damage fully assessed. At Ponca State Park on the Missouri, flooding inundated the Riverfront campground and washed out a portion of the road circling it. It also turned The flooding that occurred last March in Nebraska was expected. The scale, however, was not. And as rivers crept out of their banks and topped and carved holes in levees, many people who assumed they would be safe found themselves stranded in their homes, some at risk of being swept away. Game and Parks Commission staff, including conservation officers and fisheries and wildlife biologists, did what Nebraskans often do in situations such as this: they jumped in to help. Using a variety of boats, staff braved rising waters, strong currents and high winds, dodging debris, fences and other submerged obstacles, to rescue 148 people, young and old, during the peak of the flooding, pulling some from rooftops and second-story windows. Numerous pets were given rides to safety with their owners. Staff helped evacuate several housing developments along the Platte, Elkhorn and Big Blue rivers. Not counted in the above number were the residents moved from a nursing home in Wood River surrounded by floodwaters, and reuniting parents with children who were stranded overnight in a daycare in Fremont. In western Nebraska, officers helped rescue 20 stranded motorists on highways during the blizzard. Work went beyond rescues. Staff helped evacuate some housing developments and fill sandbags ahead of advancing floodwaters, delivered medicine to those who needed it, ferried people to hospitals for dialysis appointments and to visit a cancer-stricken patient and more. In the days after, they used kayaks and airboats to rescue pets that were stranded when homes in Bellevue flooded while their owners were at work. Levi Krause, a conservation officer from Louisville, spent four days using his air boat to help other first responders rescue 60 people and their pets, earning him an Award of Valor from the agency's Board of Commissioners and the Law Enforcement Commendation Medal from the Nebraska Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. Conservation officers shared the Lifesaving Valor Award from the Mead Fire and Rescue Department. All Game and Parks staff members who assisted in flooding efforts were recognized for going above and beyond the call of duty to keep people safe. Krause and others involved say they were simply doing their job, just like so many other first responders. The flooding that occurred last March in Nebraska was expected Doing Their Job Conservation officer Travis Shepler (steering boat) helping evacuate residents of Seward who were caught unexpectedly in the floods of the Big Blue River. PHOTO BY MARY SNOWDON PHOTO BY DINA BARTA

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