I am from Nebraska, and I spent years there hearing most people complain endlessly about too much government and how "socialism" is destroying their freedoms (as they collected massive farm subsidies, paid by the rest of us). As I see the damage done by the abnormal weather that may become the new normal, I wonder if this could become a learning moment for a state that is bound to collect federal emergency funds. Could man made climate change begin to mean something to them? Could a government that helps citizens in need change their minds about the need for government intervention? I doubt it..... they will collect their checks and vote for the guy who hates the immigrants and who does not care about climate change. This, mind you, in a state that absolutely depends on immigrant labor for their meat packing plants and farm work. Maybe more tariffs would help.....
302
@Jeff-Bob
Humans - I find Americans in particular (of which I am) - are pretty bad at reflecting on our ill-informed, earlier thinking and ways. Some will go to their graves preferring to think they are right in light of all other evidence.
Nebraska, just join the community with the evidence and lets ALL work to slow our warming earth. You don't have to admit that you were wrong.
39
@Jeff-Bob
Hows this abnormal ? It is a flood plain . It has been happing for millions of years .
10
They will suffer as did those in Noah's time. Ignorance is not bliss.
9
Yes climate change was not mentioned in this article and I noticed that because climate is a constant conscious concern for me since my son and all other living things will be facing it effects to a greater degree. In New York we have have had saturated grounds this past fall, ( as we did the prior year) due to excessive rain but, luckily, not too much snow this winter. Perhaps we will have a hiatus this year of the predicted tropical like weather conditions for the Northeast that climate change will bring ( and I think has as brought) here the past few years precipitation humidity wise. One columnist suggested "Global weirding" would be a more apt term as the weather will behave capriciously and, some naysayers will see inconstant changes as proof of normal fluctuation. I actually still hope climate change is not happening, or not half as badly as some say it it will but all my personal observations and physical senses along with respect for science and the studies they have done on it says it is happening and at a rapid pace.
I worry, and also feel much frustration that we haven't stepped up to address it long before.
57
@kenm Climate change has been happening for millions of years. Its natural and thinking climate remains constant is very misinformed!!
@Weatherguy
Who said climate remains constant? Scientists are the ones who told you about huge natural climate changes in the past and the current one starting due to us.
16
@kenm
From the article: “Under models of climate change, a warmer atmosphere can hold more water, and thus the likelihood of intense inundation increases.”
7 percent more moisture in the atmosphere for every degree C rise in temperature, hence these “rain bombs”.
27
You need to understand Nebraskans before you start blaming Washington for not giving us more attention. Most of us are quite happy to be here where Washington leaves us alone. Please stop reminding them we are here. While the flooding has been devastating (my daughters house is flooded right now) we will, as always, help our neighbors clean up and rebuild and get back to life as we know and love it. Around here that's what you do.
14
@tfair - Leaves you alone? Your state takes in quite a bit of government funding, starting with the taxpayer funds that flow to big ag.
125
@tfair
My first comment seems to have evaporated so I’m going to try again here.
So, you’re devastated but you’re saying you don’t want DC to know about you
Some questions for you:
Do folks appreciate RFD?
Rural electrification back in the day?
I-80 and other highways?
FEMA?
Federal monitoring of what’s happening at the nuclear plant, with the water rising? Not to mention the folks who must remain at their posts?
The farm bills and other subsidies?
Medicare?
All kinds of tax exemptions for farmers?
And so on. And on and on and on.
Your Governor was on NPR today and spoke cogently about the widespread devastation of the floods. He sounded very knowledgeable and calm, yet fully involved in the various crises in your state.
And, amazing though it may seem to you he didn’t get into the ideas you’re writing about.
He’s talking about assessing damage, working with your National Guard (people whose lives are affected by this devastating event, yet doing their duty to the people they are sworn to protect) the first responders who have almost died of hypothermia yet are performing wonderfully.
And on and on and on.
Who are you to be so acidic and thoughtless and arrogant?
Please check back in and let us know how you and yours are faring.
Oh—before I hit send: surely you won’t want to dump anything in your local landfill, likely run by some governmental agency.
77
@tfair This might be a stretch for some, but the floods, droughts and heat waves are just getting started. Though invisible, carbon dioxide traps heat in the atmosphere. This is a fact, not an opinion or belief.
51
When I was a kid, a natural disaster was proof that the second coming was near. Now it's proof of global warming. Different philosophies, same brains.
We've been in drought for years, hay very hard to get. Now floods. How about somewhere in the middle?
We are in this together as Americans. These farmers need relief, improved levees in flood-prone areas, and enterprise zones in the smaller towns. Cities need improved rapid transit & infrastructure. We all need relief from costly medical care, exhorbitant college costs; sensible gun regs that allow arms for personal protection and hunting while gun show loopholes are closed and background checks & mental health provisions are beefed up.
3
@LMT those areas are probably no longer viable.
I abhor Trump but one can not say that this flood has anything to do with him or his misguided government. No one can say this specific flood is the result of climate change but we know that such floods and other weather events will increase due to climate change and global warming.
Some of the comments have been so politicized as to suggest the farmers got what they deserved for voting for Trump. This is no time for that kind of sentiment. Many are losing their homes, farms and their way of life. This is not a time for ill advised commentary, but rather, empathy, prayers, and aid are needed.
5
@Robert Meegan
Did they have that same empathy for the migrant families whose children were taken from them? What were they saying then?
2
@Robert Meegan According to my sources, hundreds of truck loads of prayers have already arrived and many more are on the way.
6
@Robert Meegan
Sadly this has not yet reached our president for commentary.
It is up to the people of the United States to help
each other.
1
This will almost certainly be another case where we socialize the losses due to extraordinary weather and privatize the gains for fossil fuel and other energy interests. The same thing has happened repeatedly with the massive flooding from numerous recent hurricanes (Harvey, Irma, Maria) and dozens of fires out west. Of course all due emergency relief funds should be used pronto, but shouldn’t someone else besides the average taxpayer kick in a lot more?
5
Professor Jennifer Francis at Rutgers is a leading climate scientist who has linked the warming Arctic to changes in our weather. While we cannot say with certainty that a particular season's weather was "caused" by climate change, theories such as Prof. Francis' predict that previously rare sequences (heavy autumn rain, above average winter snow, warm and early spring rains) may become more likely. Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtmuBoolHQg
3
I forgot to mention that the people who shoveled my roof brought in a device that used HOT water to create a "saw" and cut frozen snow on the ground into blocks and carried them away.
Leaving 2 to 3 feet of frozen snow and ice. "Guess I had better get my blades sharpened."
1
I visit the Omaha area several times a year for business, and this story and pictures sadden me. These are decent people who have been dealt a cruel hand by a changing climate and political "leaders" who won't accept the science that shows we have to address climate change NOW.
2
@Chris You missed the part about the frozen ground? Or chose to ignore it?
1
We can debate how much of a factor it might be, but we must surely recognize that we have paved, bermed, and leveed, our countryside to the point where water has insufficient escape routes beyond flooding into developed and inhabited areas.
6
And, I'm sure if we look closely at the 'ancient record' as we geologists like to say - this area has most likely seen this event many times over in the past.
It is why we have such incredible agriculture in the central plains - erosion and deposition. Problem is - WE are now in the way!
3
I had no idea this was going on till this morning. When I read one, count em' ONE story.
And while I have been endlessly perplexed as to why so many of these folks continuously vote against their own interest. Well, one good ploy which has always seemed to work has been the phony "Christian Conservative" schilling by the right.
But some of the condescension here from folks in other areas is pretty amazing. But then again, remember only last year some of the nasty comments about Californians while their state was burning. Sigh ... what a sick society we have going on. Everyone is SO righteous in their beliefs.
4
Mr President, this is a real emergency.
4
Where is FEMA? Oh, that’s right. Nowhere because we are building a wall.
4
In the Midwest farming community, neighbors help neighbors. Now that farming is predominantly done by corporate farms with hired payrolls, where are they when disaster strikes? It is time for states to lean on corporate farming interests, to plow their profits back into the community to rebuild the roads, dams and farming infrastructure that they take advantage of to make profit. My Midwest farming and non farming ancestors did this all the time for their communities both rural and urban.
8
@Sarah
How do you know the "corporate farms" aren't already doing this, or that they won't do it in response to this current disaster?
1
@Sarah
Each of the dozens of farmers I know of, from 2,000 acres to 20,000+, is a "corporate" farmer. Incorporating your farming operation is necessary if you even have a prayer of making a profit under our complex tax code. Additionally, what profits would you propose to tax? We've had bumper crops at record low prices for several years. The flood of $3 grain on the markets means no US grain farmers, regardless of size, are getting rich; many aren't even making ends meet and exiting farming. Input costs continue to climb. It's a challenging time to be a farmer.
2
@Sarah97% of all farms is still owned by families. we, yes I am a farmer might have to farm more acres due to muchlower margins. one farmer in000 the midwestgota call at 11 p.m. from local authorities. a car was stranded on a bridge over a flooded river. he got on hid tractor snd drove to the bridge. hid tractor was washed off the bridge and he died. Farmers not only take of their livestock and friends and neighbors but strangers as well
2
Here in the upper part of the lower peninsula and in the UP we had heavy snow followed by freeing rain. Repeat again and again.
The results in my yard 3 ft. of block hard frozen snow. Had over three ft. of snow shoveled off my roof (which added to the amount already on the ground). My deck is level with the snow on the ground.
I'm headed out side to shovel piles of snow taller than me, to spread them out and hopefully the weather will warm up enough to melt some of it.
3
Missing data alert: Start at the beginning in the uplands. Farmers, Republicans and Trump have rejected any implementation of the WOTUS protecting prairie wetlands and for most states in the flooded areas, over half of the preexisting wetlands are already drained (90% in Iowa). That left no place for the runoff to collect from last falls rains or for that matter, any runoff that has happened in the last century. Add to that, the Corps of Engineers trying to engineer nature with their dikes, levees and dams, all of which make riverine channels narrower and makes water move faster at higher levels. On top of that, look at the absolute rejection by Republican legislatures at any version of land use planning to keep flood zones free of development. A recipe for disaster that continues to get worse every year. A completely self inflicted wound.
65
@tom - last year's flooding in Houston comes to mind after reading this comment.
6
@tom Totally agree. I grew up in rural Iowa in the sixties and 70's moved away after college and came back upon retirement from teaching. I was amazed at how all the small creeks and all of the stands of trees that were missing from the landscape. They are ripping out trees and tiling as fast as they can. They are also planting in floodplain annually. Flooding happens here NE Iowa Turkey river basin at least 3 times a year. Why are they throwing good money after bad? Greed and inability to compete in a world market. Large farming concerns, CAFOS and hog confinements have turned me into a vegan. I'm afraid to bathe in the water. They pump so much manure into the ground it can't possibly go anywhere but into the water table. Iowa DNR is bought off by the big farming industry. I support smaller farming concerns. The big ones I could do without. Sorry for all flooded out, but that area does this almost every year and after the 59" of snow we got this year they should have expected it. Thoughts and prayers just don't cut it in the real world. Maybe consider this before you're next trip into the voting booth,
18
Not every person in the affected states voted for Trump. The losses of the farmers and ranchers will impact all of us. Where do you think our food comes from? Yes, I’m upset about climate deniers and the consequences to the entire planet, but these are people who need our compassion and support.
23
@Suzanne Patrick maybe trump can stop by and dropoff some paper towels like he did in Puerto Rico. Or lecture on land management like he did in California, you know, where produce comes from.
5
@Suzanne Patrick I agree. Who voted for whom really isn't an issue. We all understood that during from Pearl Harbor through 9/11. Those folk need our help. And together we need to find long term solutions. We can't financially afford to pay for catastrophic losses ad infinitum.
3
Trumplandia pays the price for their support of the “Denier”.
14
@Bill While I understand your feelings, I don't think that now is the time for such a comment. These people are in trouble and are suffering.
4
Wonder if those wonderful tar sands and frack gas pipelines held up. Probably not.
9
They’ll say, “We can’t do anything about climate change because it would be bad for the economy.”
26
Midwesterners overwhelmingly voted for Trump, and like him, most believe climate change is a leftist hoax and a socialist plot to bring about the economic destruction of America. There have been floods before so there is no reason for concern. A single weather event is meaningless. They will never concede climate change is real because they know leftist, elitist science is politically manufactured to frighten people into surrendering to socialism. Good luck to all.
42
@Scientist When NYC suffered devastating blows, the folks in the Midwest did not blow you off with a "good luck" based upon who you voted for. Show some compassion, and if you eat food, you should care.
3
@Scientist
Feels good doesn't it? Do say I told you so.. To shove "these" people's faces into their choices and beliefs and thus feel vindicated in what YOU have been saying all along? Because who are these people in Nebraska and Iowa but not Trump supporters and climate change deniers? Well even if some of them are, do they deserve to suffer this way and lose their homes and livelihoods?
Well, in the end YOU are the problem. Its YOU who choses to divide and polarize, instead of offering compassion. YOU are what's wrong with our society and YOU are the reason Trump will win again.
1
Tragic. All that water is also not just water - it is raw sewage, run-off from fertilized farm fields, industry, gas stations, animal waste - in other words, a toxic soup. Whatever is soaked with it will have to be trashed. I helped with clean-up in Cedar Rapids in 2008 when the river flooded. I could smell Cedar Rapids long before I got there. Clean-up then as now is a long, painful process.
69
As the climate change skeptics, including the Big Don, taunted back when there was unusual cold just a few weeks ago, “Where’s the global warming when we need it?” Answer: Here ya go! Some fun, eh?
32
Frozen ground and heavy rains are absolutely a poisonous combination and although we could possibly say this is not a product of climate disruption, there is nothing to say there won't be more and worse occurrences. My heart goes out to farmers and the cities.
19
Nebraska went for Trump. I do feel very sorry for all those drowned animals...
22
@BJR1961 me too, that the animals have to pay the price for the ignorant ppl who think climate change is a hoax.
2
@BJR1961 Show some compassion to all, regardless of politics. FYI, Trump carried your state, Arkansas, with 60.57% of the vote in 2016.
There should be a Nebraska Farmers Aid fund and the farmers should be able to see donations from every state. People on the East Coast, New York Times readers, should make public statements of sympathy and support.
8
Maybe there will be some money left after Trump guts every domestic program to build his Wall.
1
We offer our thoughts and prayers, and oppose any help from state or federal level. That would be intolerable big government tyranny. You have to surrender to the will of god
31
What I believe people are missing is the affect on the Midwest. Ignore the politics for a brief moment. The largest city in the state can only get to one city by road. Towns have been literally swept away and roads have disappeared along with them. Everyone would like some waterfront property but I believe this to be a bit much. With roads already bad before the flood, nearly a billion dollars will have to be spent to rebuild roads. Farmers and ranchers have lost everything in a struggling industry and yet most comments I see are about the left and right. Instead of dividing the world, unity is the only way we can survive this. Use this moment to help one another. Also, if California would like water to put out future fires, please let the governor know soon.
24
@John a call for unity and then a crack about California. Very classy. Btw, it’s unreported but California has experience flooding this winter as well.
1
I didn’t realize how bad it was. Our climate is becoming more extreme. We have to do something or this could become the new normal.
A crisis usually concentrates our collective minds ... but Americans have become numb to many a crisis. School shootings even in elementary school kids fail to move us to action; flooding of NY, Houston. New Orleans evokes no long term planning. Now this clear evidence of climate change impacts is but a foot note to the blathering of our President who is preoccupied by comedy show reruns.
In 2016 President Trump said "what do you have to lose" by electing him.
Well now we know. Civilization as we know it can crumble within decades if climate change intensifies rapidly .....
Lets hope Nature gives us a second chance.
43
The natural forces are an unstoppable force but can be guided. If we don’t start working together it will wash over us with extreme prejudice and no mercy.
I don't want a penny of my tax dollars going to climate denying states when climate disaster strikes them. I want them to suffer because maybe a bit of pain will get them to wake up and take positive climate action.
33
When they go low, we go... lower?
Now isn’t that amazing! Science does indeed work!
Climatologist speak the truth.
28
Let's start with what it means to be a "500-year” flood. ... Rather, a 500-year flood is an event that has a 1 in 500 chance of occurring in any given year. “For a 500-year flood, there is a 0.2 percent chance of having a flood of that magnitude occurring” in any given year, according to the National Weather Service.
5
The water is starting to drown us from above, as atmospheric physics suggested would happen. And from below as sunny day flooding in coastal places like South Florida increases.
It seems a number of people running things missed the news from two independent teams of scientists in 2014 that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is likely retreating irreversibly. 1
And the paper this year showing increasing mass loss from the much larger East Antarctic Ice Sheet, which we thought might be our friend for another 100 years by gaining mass. 2
It's past time we tried bargaining with 19th century physics.
1. Marine Ice Sheet Collapse Potentially Under Way for the Thwaites Glacier Basin, West Antarctica http://science.sciencemag.org/content/344/6185/735
Widespread, rapid grounding line retreat of Pine Island, Thwaites, Smith, and Kohler glaciers, West Antarctica, from 1992 to 2011 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014GL060140/full
2. Four decades of Antarctic Ice Sheet mass balance from 1979–2017 https://www.pnas.org/content/116/4/1095
42
Wouldn’t want “big government” to help! Let them pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
27
Read “The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming” by David Wallace-Wells.
Just read it.
30
@MFM Doc - Thanks for the recommendation. I just ordered it from the library.
6
@MFM Doc
It's a book that accurately portrays the risks we entail with the current atmospheric experiment with our only planet.
Another good book is 6 Degrees by Mark Lynas which looked at six scenarios of what Earth might be like at 1-6 degrees C above preindustrial temperature.
The problem is that the higher we let global temperature rise, the greater the risk of getting stinking hot as amplifying feedbacks strengthen.
17
Erik,
I have been reading your posts. Thank you for doing your hardest and best to educate people about the existential dangers of climate change.
The more people truly understand the horrific consequences of where we are heading (not just in the next several hundred years - but as short as the next twenty to thirty), the better prepared we will all be to properly confront these challenges.
We have limited time and I fear we are losing the war for humanity’s survival...
10
The selling off of the water vapour frequency to IT companies, perhaps squeezing out weather satellite access to this frequency will make events like this even more catastrophic as the US weather forecast will revert back to 1970s level.
We had so much. I am so sorry.
4
Humans have been on Earth for around 200,000 years. For most of that time, we were nomadic.
We started settling down into sedentary, fixed communities around 10,000 years ago. But many settled people still had migratory lives, moving between winter and summer settlements. And many continued to live a completely nomadic existence.
It’s only very recently that the majority of human beings have been trying to stay put.
With rapid climate change, we are really going to be challenged because our fixed towns and cities are each designed around a comparatively predicable local climate.
Nebraska has been settled as an agricultural hub (cattle, hogs, soybeans, corn and wheat). If the climate is evolving into something that no longer supports that agriculture, then all Nebraskans are going to be in for a world of hurt.
We really need to face this reality head on.
We have built our towns and cities around climate communities. We are not prepared to shift our economic bases to mesh with new climates. The new norm is extreme conditions. When it rains, it floods. When it stops raining, it’s drought. When it’s cold, it’s the Arctic. When it’s hot, it’s Death Valley.
We are taking the planet Earth and changing it into the planet Venus!
37
@Heather
Regarding "our fixed towns and cities", the last time that CO2 was at current levels, millions of years ago, sea level was high enough to force around 10 percent of our current global population to move. That's 700 million people.
Most of our large cities are coastal.
During the previous interglacial period, at temperatures around just half a degree C above today, sea level was 6-9 meters above today, and at just 1 meter we start to get into real trouble.
The problem with sea level rise is that as sea levels approach the top of a coastal defense the greater the risk of a storm surge breaching the defense, and the damage occurs like in New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina.
And many places just can't be defended like river deltas where mega cities are located along with productive agricultural lands.
24
@Erik Frederiksen - I am 68 and I believe within a short time I'll see Miami Beach and Miami half submerged.
11
@Erik Frederiksen
Last time CO2 levels were this high, there were no Homo Sappiness on the globe, and the globe obviously yearns for the good old days.
Get thee to a University.
1
This is climate change in action because as we should know, a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture.
The consequences on our current path will be infinite.
For how do you put a price on things like species loss, ecosystem loss, farming friendly Holocene loss, ice sheet loss, Arctic ice cap loss, permafrost loss, deep ocean circulation loss, etc, etc?
25
Why the Water Is So High? 2 words. Climate change or global warming. Whatever you want to call it. Round 2 incoming in 12 months.
23
Wow.
We expect to see these photos from Louisiana or even Texas.
But not flat as a pancake Nebraska.
The last question: what is the forecast?
Folks, remember a weatherman is 10% right 50% of the time.
1
@Neil
If you get off the Interstate you will learn that Nebraska is not flat as a pancake.
Weather prediction is taken seriously here, There are tornadoes and blizzards. But most disconcerting are the new historic rain falls where for example, five inches come down in one hour. This is no longer historic, this is global warming.
20
@Neil The weather forecasters are way better than that. Even a 7 day out forecast is mostly correct if you look at the big picture.
10
There's no doubt it's all because of climate change, formerly known as global warming: "A historic snowy winter", "The flat, frozen land, unable to soak in much of the water", “The ground was like concrete,” said Kevin Low, a hydrologist at the service’s Missouri Basin River Forecast Center. “In January, temperatures took a nose dive and we’ve had deeply frozen ground all the way south into Missouri.”
16
"...the vast area drained by the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, from the northern Great Basin to the Northern Rockies..."
Is it possible you meant to say Great Plains? The Great Basin is its own watershed, and the northern part of it is way over in Nevada and Oregon. They are not flooded.
Either way, my heart goes out to the farmers hurt by this event!
11
Wow, I read this article with tears in my eyes. Then I read the comments!
I'm a never-Trump, climate change-believer, too, but is this the time to gloat and lecture? Imagine if this disaster were a school massacre, instead. Would you be writing the victims' parents, to tell them "I told you so. You should have (controlled guns, regulated guns, hired a guard, carried guns--go fill in this blank as you like)."
Now is really not the time to hammer these people. Nebraska, I'm so sorry for your pain!
30
@PNK Those of us commenting on climate change do, in fact, feel enormous compassion for the people affected by the flooding.
The reason we feel compelled to comment is that there is so much more suffering, loss of homes and crops and lifestyles to come with only a little bit of added warming. It is devastating to see these tragedies occur despite the fact we have the knowledge and technology to curtail them.... and meanwhile there seems to be a "debate" about whether this effect is even real. That is political tragedy piled on human tragedy.
68
@Mira
I'm not saying that we don't need to treat climate change as a desperate emergency. But that will take all hands on deck. Kicking a guy when he's down isn't acceptable. And it's no way to persuade him to come over to your side.
6
@Mira - Exactly. We lost 8 precious years where the compassionate conservative George W. Bush (safely and securely ensconced in his Dallas condo) could have started to address global warming and climate change and essentially did nothing. Barack Obama was blocked for 6 years by the Republican Congress and now with the Republicans in charge under Trump we've actually regressed. That is a wasted 24 years of doing nothing, a whole generation. I'll lay most the blame at the feet of the Republican Party and those farmers in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma (where the prairie wheat, sure smells sweet ... ), the Dakota, Idaho, Montana, Iowa. Those farmers made a killing on corn.
13
Reading about all the poor little drowned and frozen dead calves found under blocks of ice and mud brought tears to my eyes. After the indifference I’ve grown to feel from all the mass shootings of people I’m glad to know I still can cry.
21
I wonder how many acres of this land was filled in to become land. Mother Nature will always win.
2
@Kathryn Nebraska is not Manhattan. the land is on flood plains that have not been underwater in the written history of this state.
15
@Kathryn - One man's levy is another man's flood.
2
This has been happening for millions of years, creating some of the best farm land in the world. We should be celebrating .
1
@TIM JONES
How tiresome.....
16
@TIM JONES
Tell that to the farmers who are going to declare bankruptcy due to the damage caused by the flooding.Throw in the freezing earlier this winter with the saturating rains of Fall, and now this, and it spells catastrophe for farmers.
It's in this article, btw:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/18/us/nebraska-floods.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
This IS unprecedented - no one is saying floods haven't happened, it's the scale and magnitude that's different now.
27
@Mark exacerbated by low commodity prices then compounded by trump's China trade war
12
I hope our politicians will wake up and respond to this current emergency. The people of Nebraska and surrounding states need help now and they are going to need help for some time to come. Bring those troops back from the southern border where they are putting on a show for President Trump's ego and send them here. They need manpower and money!
43
I know it’s cruel but isn’t capitalism the best solution. Let the capitalists take over at rock bottom prices and sell it to the next future farmers at the highest rate possible. The invisible hand will guide them and the market will self correct.
I don’t agree with the above. I believe the purpose of government is to work as a team and help each other. Yet many of us are tired of being demonized as lunatic leftists.
4
FLOOD PLAIN!!! that sort of says it all, no? It's like building a house on a fault line, not if but when.
13
The headline said why is the water so high? Well, maybe due to rain or snow.
1
@Shamrock
Actually, It's rain on snow
8
As the political left discovers for the first time that floods happen, and blames nature on the political right.
1
@Ed Your comment takes conservative victimhood to a new level of absurdity.
72
@Ed
Physics is not political. It just is, despite attempts by the right to deny science.
56
@Ed nobody blames nature on the political right; but I do blame the ignorant denial of climate change and the lack of preparedness for it on the political right.
76
One can only put so much water down a funnel, and when the Corp of Engineers continues to expand that funnel northward and laterally up the Mississippi, the outcome is predictable....record precipitation or not.
6
I spent thanksgiving outside on the deck in Omaha it was sunny and warm not like the freezing temperatures in NY.
I wondering what they were doing with all those soybeans they could build a levy with them.
7
@John Is this really something to joke about? Do you really think you can build a levy out of soybeans? When hurricanes and other tragedies hit Long Island, my friends and family from rural Nebraska are demonstrably compassionate. Please think about the suffering and loss you find funny about a great state in an area of the world that feeds much of the world.
13
For every degree C rise in temperature the atmosphere holds seven percent more moisture.
In addition the loss of Arctic sea ice has caused the northern polar jet stream to slow so it has been getting stuck in wavy patterns which cause weather systems to persist.
We saw Hurricane Harvey stall over Houston and dump 5 feet of rain, setting a record.
41
I'm sorry for the misery the flood has caused and is causing. I did hear about this late last week, but Boeing 737 Max 8 and the Christchurch massacre drowned out almost everything else. But I'm also not sure what real benefit greater media coverage could have achieved, other than monetary donation.
7
@William Fang
For starters, greater coverage could have served to tickle more people's brains with the thought "could climate change be part of this superfluous water?"
9
@William Fang it's called newsworthy.
3
It’s not as if the writing hasn’t been on the wall for what 25, 30 years? Rural America needs to wake up; YOU are taking away your own land by voting against your own interests year after year after year. Instead of worrying about ISIS or illegal immigrants, you should be worrying about a climate that is going in a direction that will virtually guarantee you and your offspring will be refugees in 3-4 decades.
126
@Dudesworth 3-4 decades?! That's very optimistic.
25
@Dudesworth arguably they are already, or really their children, as they have mostly urbanized
3
@Dudesworth Fair point, up to a point. Many people in Nebraska do indeed worry about climate change. And many of them are farmers, because they are dealing with it every year. I still am involved in our family's farm operations in Nebraska, where my ancestors homesteaded in the 1800s. I have found many farmers to be among the most intelligent people I have encountered. They must be experts in many areas, ranging from finance and global marketing to geology, botany and chemistry. Please do not assume all people there are climate change deniers. I, too, am frustrated by the voting patterns there. But we need to find ways to work together, in a sustained way, not relish moments of loss and suffering wrought by punishing weather.
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When you see these annual events occur, you wonder why these states aren’t spending the money on infrastructure to either turn the water into a resource or divert it in ways that would avoid disaster. In waterlogged Netherlands, they’re turning climate change into an opportunity. Even the Romans could teach us something again about how to convey water. Yet Americans don’t seem to be interested in ingenuous ways to avoid calamity because they might have to pay for it. So thoughts and prayers to the people of the Midwest.
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@AlNewman. Yeh. Thoughts and prayers will fix everything. Floods, trade wars, mass shootings. All you have to do is believe.
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@AlNewman
In the waterlogged Netherlands they happen to be hurting. Some areas are being abandoned because the sea rise is real and it is mean.
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@AlNewman " See these annual events? ...States aren't spending the money?" Oh you are from an area that flys over the midwest? Clearly you don't know anything about the economy or weather in the midwest. It doesn't flood every year; there are years of drought too. And these states are not awash in money... state or federal. Take a look at the average salary levels in each of these states, their tax base then take a look at the population levels spread over the vast geography. Your advice? Even the Romans wouldn't presume to. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers though; they won't do any more good with this issue than they do with gun control: mass shootings.
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Aside from and because of the human tragedies involved, disasters bring out the best and sometimes the worst in leadership. At times the very same leader may look very good addressing one disaster (911) and extreme poor in another (Katrina). Right now, Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand has stepped up with an impressive display of decisiveness and empathy. But all of our hearts must go out to those there, and to our relatives, friends, and fellow Midwest country folk whose lives are shattered or disrupted by this ongoing disaster of a different kind.
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But they voted for Trump thereby resisting efforts to address climate change. So this is a learning opportunity. Good luck with that!
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A recent Spring flood was likened to one in 1953 I think but with vastly different damage. Aerial photography showed the floodwaters being held more on the land in 1953. This was before draining wetlands was an epidemic and diversity in crops was routine, but hey some people got rich.
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Never thought I would equate "worst flooding in history" with the state of Nebraska.
After seeing the photos of more water than land and four-lane roadways disappearing in the middle, my heart stopped for a moment. All I could think of were those poor people surrounded by rushing water, frozen ground and no where to go.
I recall a few years ago when Chicago received unprecedented between November through April. After awhile, there was no place to shovel the new snow because the banks of snow were so high. And then May came, with the warm temps and the snow began to melt but had no place to go . . . but into our basement. The water in the sewer had frozen and time was of the essence. I took a hose from the basement and turned on the warm water. Thank goodness, the pipe did not freeze, the ice began to melt and the water began to run into the sewer rather than flood our basement with over 10 inches of water. It was scary. And that was NOTHING compared to what the folks in Nebraska are encountering.
Sudden rising temps in the dead of winter before spring can be more deadly than a summer flood. Frozen ground can't keep up with the thawing and saturation required.
Any information for contributions/donations would be gratefully appreciated. Thank you.
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Climate change is no Chinese hoax.
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@Marge Keller
Thank you. My family is from Fremont, a town that was an “island” for several days as water left it impossible to get anything - or anyone - in and out. Roads are drying out, but now we’re finding they’re damaged and may take months to repair. There is one road to Omaha right now, a major location of employment for many in town. This is not going to end any time soon.
Your best bet is to donate to the United Way. You can text FremontUW to 41444. It will direct you to where to go. Thank you again.
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@JLH
Thank you for the information. I sincerely wish your family the best. Please forgive me for being blunt, but I think the ramifications of this horrific flooding is only beginning. I am assuming Governor Pete Ricketts has declared many areas in Nebraska effected by this flooding a national disaster. However, based on the weather and water conditions alone, I fear it will take months before repairs and replacement work can even begin. My heart breaks for your family and everyone effected.
United Way - here I come.
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The narrative of not getting enough coverage on this real emergency comes from the White House. Don't blame the news media, I have seen every cable and local station covering this as it unfolds. Funny how the social media shares all are titled with "why isn't this getting coverage" Sounds like the Russian trolls are at work sewing division again.
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@dakotagirl: Sowing.
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@tbrucia feel better you just corrected autocorrect
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Look at those beautiful floods. The best flooding you've probably ever seen.
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Extreme weather is the normal situation now.
If Nebraska planted less corn, raised less beef and planted more trees we would all be better off.
Replace Industrial Scale unhealthy toxic farming with more natural methods and foods. The environment and the people will be more healthy.
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@Louis J When we sold a farm that had been in our family for 3 generations, the new owner cut down all the trees. Some of those trees had been planted as wind breaks after the dust bowl years. It's hard to teach the kind of farmer who only has his mind on tillable acres and yield the importance of trees; even though Nebraska is the home of Arbor Lodge.
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@Ann
From a rural background as well, I wish I could recommend this letter more than once.
Down under we see this a lot in the grain growing and feedlot regions, less so in the mixed farming areas.
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@Louis J
This is Nebraska. The Great Plains. NOT tree country.
There seems to be scant news coverage of this devastation because it's in "fly-over" country, as if actual humans don't reside there. To so sure, there is a large segment of Trump's base in this area, and of course, his attention is not on them, but on a dead senator. I hope his supporters hear the silence coming out of Washington, but one Nebraska resident cited the lack of news coverage was because they are the "deplorables", as if Hillary is president. The irony.
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@Pat -- I live in flyover country, the eastern of that vast territory and here are the relevant facts. Other people in the flyover empty know what's happening in Nebraska, as do the people on the coasts. There's plenty of news coverage of this, whether Nebraska is "deplorables" country or not. You're right that Trump's paying no attention, but what about Senators Fischer and Sasse? I haven't read a thing that mentions these individuals. Where do they stand? Are they ready to take a less rock-ribbed position against what is happening to the planet and our country and stand up against their own party's opposition to anything that smacks of giving the other side the benefit of a doubt with regard to outrageous weather events?
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I'm waiting for some weather expert to state the obvious: that the cause of the especially deep snow pack whose melt is expected to increase and prolong the flooding is in turn the result of the shifting of the polar vortex southward, which shift is directly attributable to global warming.
The floods may not have been caused by climate change, but their effects will be exacerbated by it. Will reporters investigate and report the link, so that the American public will understand the situation as yet another manifestation of energy policies that constitute a threat to both economic and food security?
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@Ellie
Oh but if you mention that, someone will accuse you of "dragging politics into it" and "not being sensitive to the needs of the people who are suffering". SMDH Fine, help the people but also figure out the root cause and if it's a permanent shift in the climate and this is going to be happening over and over....well... then...
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Sorry, but the Polar Vortex has been shifting south for decades. You can blame a lot on climate change, but you can't blame the polar vortex on it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_vortex
@Paul -- The Wikipedia article you references discusses the impact of Climate Change on the Polar Vortex which destabilizes pushing warm air northward and cold air southward. We have for too long dragged our feet in addressing the dangers of Climate Change and human actions that are destroying the Ecosystem on our small planet.
5
The new normal.
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@David B. Benson
Unfortunately, this is not the new normal. Due to the momentum in Earth's energy system and climate we will see climate continue to change until it reaches a new equilibrium with atmospheric CO2, many, many millennia from now . . .
There's no "new normal" in any time scale of interest to humanity.
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@David B. Benson - More like the "new" abnormal on our way to the next, worse abnormal. We're swirling down the toilet bowl, friends and neighbors. Keep on drivin' them F250's and urban 4WD SUV's, flyin' to Mexico for that long (oh so badly needed) weekend, building overheated/cooled, under-insulated McMansions blah and blah…
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It has always flooded in this part of the United States because of the confluence of the giant rivers called Mississippi, Missouri, and others. In the 1930's a massive undertaking by the Federal Government took measures to contain these rivers but that is impossible. The Mississippi is massive and beautiful and still deadly given this set of circumstances. Man cannot control nature and never will.
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Nebraska has no confluence of the Missouri or Mississippi. Just many miles of long, braided streams with minimal flow. This is flooding of local streams and topping of levees due to 500-1000 year flood event. Our SECOND one this decade.
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@Bill Dinger
Bingo.... lots of "hundred year" climate events happening every decade.
Maybe new paradigm?
2
"Hundreds of families have fled their homes, especially in the Mississippi and Missouri flood plains, where levees were breached in many areas. "
This is why they call them "flood plains" -- because they flood -- every time conditions are ripe for it -- they flood -- again and again and again. Each time people ask "Why isn't something done?"
The proper question is "Why do we allow rebuilding homes and towns on known flood plains? Why do insurers continue to pay for flood loses for the same homes and businesses?"
We do not have very good record of dealing with flooding in the Missouri/Mississippi watershed -- levees are built, river dredged and channeled adding to the problem instead of being solutions.
We ought to be able to learn from the past.
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@Kip Hansen The levees that are being breached were made for 100/500 year flood protection. I think most folks would think having to rebuild once every 500 years is fine and allowing it to be built there is ok.
The issue is this is the second 500 year flood the Missouri has seen in a decade (and the third in 30 years). The historical maps just don't make sense anymore and I don't think we are putting the resources into making new ones if we even have the data needed to do so.
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No need or reason to live in a flood plain if it requires a levee to do so. There are plenty of other places to live. we can use the flood plains as national parks and wildlife habitat.
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Victims of flooding should get a one time bailout. Any property that receives a bailout shout be returned to uninhabited flood plain. No one should be allowed to use tax payer money to rebuild in a flood plain. There is no problem using tax money to help victims reallocate out of flood plains. Flooding is different that tornadoes and hurricanes, it is almost completely predictable.
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In addition to the fact that Nebraska has the most miles of river of any state (approximately 79,000).
16
I am in Nebraska and the devastation is terrible. Many Nebraskans are angry and surprised that there isn't more national coverage. In this solidly red state farmers are already hurting from Trump's tariffs. This will completely destroy many. I don't know how the state will ever rebuild so many bridges and roads. It's bad.
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@Rayna Collins I truly hope the federal government will step in and provide these states with the aid they desperately need. Stay safe, and know you're not forgotten.
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@Connor I thought Nebraskans were for smaller government. Maybe they should refuse the aid since afterward they'll bite the federal hand that feeds them their aid.
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@Rayna Collins
I am so sorry. You might ask the politicians to redirect wall funds to flood funds....
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You asked the wrong question. The question is, why isn't the President talking about this? Other than 1 tweet I think at mid-week, I haven't seen a word from the president. The FEMA Facebook page doesn't have a mention of the situation. Guess the president is too busy attacking the long dead Senator McCain to worry about the fate of some of his most devoted supporters or Offutt Air Force Base, home of the Strategic Air Command (which is 1/3 underwater). The nation's top line of defense is severely compromised, but that's not a concern for the President. He's more worried about the "invaion" of poor women and children from central America.
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@No Trace
Time to shuffle wall funds to flood funds. Time to wake up politicians.
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@No Trace - The Don has not tweeted more about this because Fox is not making this a major focus of their daily blather. Why not? Because scenes of this flood evoke emotions such as sympathy as we feel distress, being concerned for our fellow citizens. Fox focuses on what elicits fear and anger, even if the event is the other side of the world. On whom can Fox focus to blame? How can they elicit fear and anger and have it be supportive of Trump? A flood doesn’t really cut it to get them eyeballs for very long. Their audience really isn’t interested in the rolling, slow motion suffering of a flood. Expensive to use the resources to get the whole story. Might just require an opening about what they are paid to deny: climate change. They need time to come up with a believable denial that will fit the ongoing confirmation bias of the Republicans.
So Fox does not make a big deal of this kind of disaster and therefore the Donald doesn’t know it’s happening. He’ll only show up or comment when the political advisors convince him to pipe up for political advantage. I’m sure it will be lots of winning.
22
Finally an article on this disaster in the Times, though it does not begin to cover the story. The impact on peoples’ lives, their livelihoods, and the infrastructure are enormous, and they are feeling forgotten by the nation. I hope that more people will start to take notice and help.
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@Linda Rugg, we need to take action against global warming, which leads to climate change -- actually, climate chaos to climate catastrophe -- resulting in fiercer storms, heavier snows and rainfalls, flooding, droughts, hurricane strength winds and tornadoes, to start with. I hope that's the kind of help you mean. We're all going to start paying the price, unless we start taking steps now to reverse global warming. This is a national and international emergency.
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@Linda Rugg Do you find that the President is surprisingly quiet about this?
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