Residents near Nebraska’s Spencer Dam recall events of 2019 flood

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – Ice chunks weighing up to three tons, each fueled by rushing floodwaters forced the collapse of the Spencer Dam, which sent an 11-foot wall of water rushing downstream.

It wiped out Kenny Angel’s place at the base of the dam. His body was never found. The Vietnam veteran was one of three flood-related deaths in Nebraska in March 2019.

While Nebraska Public Power officials decided not to rebuild the damn, highway crews had a more pressing issue. Highway 281 across the Niobrara River had been washed, and getting around it required a detour.

A 120 mile detour.

“I’ve got to be honest, a lot of those first few days are a blur,” said Jeff Hart, a social sciences teacher at Boyd County Schools.

Many had to get creative on how to navigate the detour, which was in place for four months until contractors built a temporary highway bridge.

“The bridge south of Butte, after awhile, you couldn’t drive across it, but you could walk across it,” Hart said. “People had a vehicle on both ends and would walk across it. I know there were some families that did that everyday.”

Sometimes, what was happening at home was much harder. As the flood waters rose, many people needed to be rescued from their houses, and the community rural water line was severed. Port-a-potties and bottled water were at a premium, and when kids weren’t at school, many of them were involved in relief efforts.

“The resiliency of the kids was amazing,” Hart said.

Five years later, Hart incorporates some of the lessons of the 2019 floods into his teaching.

“I love to use it now to show how interconnected we are as a society, and how transportation is so valuable,” Hart said. “The kids who were hit by the flood and then by COVID, I tell them, ‘You lived through history.’”

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