The Missouri River

June 16, 2011

Still have a ways to go to the tracks and keeping it out of town. Very thankful! This is the little underpass from main street going towards the river. We still have our drinking water and utilities also working. Forecasters are expecting things to maintain and go no higher for the next five days. What an answer to prayer!

Nebraska has two nuclear power plants near the Missouri and news today say that they are safe! One is surrounded by water now, but could take 8.5 feet more - and forecasters say that will never happen.

Back around in '83 I remember some flooding up in Montana. Afterwards they built up the Milk River Banks around Malta. They are now seeing the invaluable rewards of that this year! We lived in Bryan when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans was in the news so much. Seeing the effects of that close up will never be forgotten. Adam saw some tornadoes while working in Wyoming. And I remember some little ones around the Malta area growing up and seeing the damage they left. The little we've seen, we have to say, being able to prepare in advance for something that is going to come is preferred! Even the businesses are able to keep up with the demand of provisions on such a better scale as compared to the panic after a disaster and the empty shelves. It is so wonderful seeing private and government help swing into action methodically and efficiently - with no complaints about how slow they are and what a poor job they didn't do quick enough! Decisions can be made on the offense, with more time for research instead in reaction to a mess with very limited choices.


More road under water. There is a steady stream of people walking back and forth looking things over. Unfortunate history in the making! It never did get this high last year.

All six dams upstream are running at record capacity. But it hasn't been raining in the Malta area as much the past week and a half! So now, we add prayers for a long, slow snowmelt in the Rockies!

The Platte River from Highway 75.

Always wide and shallow, but it's getting up there! It's still lower than what we saw it get to last year. So nice. Though Sarpy County, just north of us, is experiencing some flooding from it. It comes from Wyoming and everyone is keeping an eye on it.

Today the road department put huge sandbags on highway 75 where the Missouri may affect it. Just outside of Plattsmouth. With regular road construction going on, the commute for Adam has been pretty painful lately. In the morning traffic is backed up to his entrance from town. Coming home its very slow going, mph in the single digits for quite a ways. He doesn't have an alternate route to take, other than one that would add about an hour to his drive. So hopefully those driving back and forth from Iowa will drive a different path more and more. For this is only due to construction for the making 75 into an interstate and adding new exits, entrances and a big new bridge over to Iowa. Business as usual for them!

The road department is optimistic about keeping it open through August from any flooding. Yeah!

An interesting Omaha article on baseball's College World Series starting this week and the flooding.





p.s. How do you get a little boy to put laundry into the dryer?

Wash his favorite shirt.

(He looked and looked for it, and found it in the washer! I have to be pretty quick to get it in there in the first place. Amazing that he didn't have it on him. Only because we also visited Daddy at the office. I unfortunately realized I had missed it during library storytime. What a cutie.)