Nebraska Emergency Management predicts more flooding in spring 2020

The sights and sounds of the spring 2019 flood are ones that people will never forget

As many families were left to sweep up the remains the waters left behind, Paul Lienke says he knows it’ll happen again.

“There are two creeks north of town that feed into Salt Creek and if they go into the banks, that’s just more water we have to deal with. That’s just part of life,” Lienke said. 

As the winter is expected to be just as rough as last year with quite a bit of snow and higher river levels and broken levees, Nebraska’s Emergency Management predicts it may happen again.

“We’re a ways out and we don’t know what will happen with the weather and this spring we only know there’s an increased potential for flooding this spring,” Bryan Tuma said. 

With the flood waters leaving many families searching for incomes, early signs of another flood are the last thing the Ashland community wants to see.

“It’s a concern for everyone because there are farmers that couldn’t get their crop in and this is a farming community. So, a lot of them kind of struggled,” Lienke said.

For those families who may have experienced the destructiveness that the waters left behind in 2019, the state wants to emphasize to be prepared and have a plan for evacuation this coming spring

“We really want to emphasize if people think they could be impacted by flooding in any way or any fashion you need to explore getting flood insurance now then being a victim and not having it,” Tuma said.