EC Nebraska | Pitt - 3/19/2019 07:47
Where does this fit into record floods? 1 in 100, 200, 300 year?
At Columbus it topped out about a foot above the flood level from the 1990's. I think that was 1997, a similar ice jam event occurred with rapid snowmelt. Hwy 81 into Columbus had comparable damage that time as well.
1881 was probably a bigger flood, but no dams and fewer bridges to fail back then. A lot fewer people as well.
https://history.nebraska.gov/blog/missouri-river-flood-1881
Much of the damage along the Niobrara is due to the failure of the 90 year old Spencer dam. An eleven foot surge of water is pretty destructive.
These things happen every few decades, whenever you get rapid meltdown of a heavy snowpack into icejammed rivers. Most years one or more of those three things doesn't happen. It doesn't help that this is relatively flat country. The rivers can't really speed up too much, they just spread out. It's worth noting that the Platte River valley by Columbus is over 10 miles wide, and the rivers only spread out about two miles this time. I would think there have been bigger floods in the past, just maybe not in the last 100 years. |
Extremely aggrivated with news outlets.........Flooding
