HEAD FOR HIGHER GROUND

Record Midwest Flooding Washes Out Roads and Isolates Communities

High water from rains and melting snow breached levees along the Missouri River, killing at least one person.

At least one person was killed in record flooding that swept through 38 districts in the Midwestern states of Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota and South Dakota as levees along the Missouri River were breached. The man died when a bridge he was traversing to rescue a neighbor from floodwaters collapsed, according to the New York Times. Several thousand people who live along the Missouri River ignored evacuation orders and are now stranded. Local officials had to airlift sandbags to several people stranded on pockets of high ground. Portions of Interstate 29 were closed in Iowa as fear of more levee breaches loomed. The Missouri River flows into the Mississippi River, so authorities are concerned the flooding risk will heighten with flow of the high water. Both Iowa and Wisconsin have declared a state of emergency to help free up federal funds for assistance. Nebraska Public Power District warned that flooding would likely cause the Cooper Nuclear Station to close down on Sunday. Significant snow melt and heavy rain that fell during the “bomb cyclone” contributed to the flooding. “Things are moving and changing at a rapid pace,” Douglas County Commissioner Mary Ann Borgeson warned over the weekend, according to the Associated Press. “We need you to follow instructions and evacuate when we say you need to evacuate.”

NEW WORLD

Get Used to Saying ‘Bomb Cyclone.’

Eric Holthaus