(rain pouring)
-: Now to the major flood threat across the upper Midwest.
-: Parts of the country's midsection
slammed by days of catastrophic flooding.
-: That's catastrophic and
-: Miles and miles of devastation.
-: 55 years, I've never seen anything like this.
-: Its from Nebraska into Iowa, also into Wisconsin.
-: Parts of Nebraska, seeing the worst flooding in decades.
-: A million calves gone in Nebraska.
-: Historic river flooding from rapid snow melting ice jam.
-: Flood water swallowed entire neighborhoods.
-: Rescues and evacuations in the heartland.
-: Brown churning water.
-: Hundreds of millions of dollars
-: Record breaking.
-: I don't think that what has happened in Nebraska
has gotten the kind of coverage that it should have.
I think they're being left out.
-: Nebraska, the heart of the Heartland.
If you eat corn or beef,
there's a good chance some of it
has come from within our borders.
We work off of the land,
fighting the elements for each and every penny we make.
We've been here for generations,
passing the land down through families and
adapting over the years to new technologies
while still keeping the core of our way of life intact.
Agriculture can be a gamble, and
there are good years and bad
but our roots are dug in deep and we stand strong
in the face of anything that comes our way.
Last March, Nebraska suffered devastating flooding
on many of our rivers.
The Western part of the state
was hit with a terrible blizzard,
and the east experienced torrential rain
which fell on frozen ground
and filled rivers that were already full of ice.
Nearly the entire state was affected
and the loss and damage of property was unimaginable.
The story captured widespread media attention immediately
after the flooding but
soon, the camera crews packed up and left.
Leaving Nebraskans to fend for themselves.
Nebraskans are incredibly self-sufficient.
We don't ask for help and we don't beg for attention.
We do what has to be done, and we do our best to move on.
But just because we don't ask for our stories to be told
doesn't mean they're not worth telling.
In response to the flooding,
Nebraska Extension commissioned 50 students
to do flood recovery work across the state.
The college of journalism
received the resources for
eight students to travel the state
and report on what happened.
We formed Flood Feed Media,
and we've been working all summer
to show the incredible resilience
of the people of Nebraska in the face of tragedy.
And also to investigate the causes of the flooding
and its long term effects.
-: Wednesday morning, woke up.
It was dry out,
the kids went to school, just kind of a normal day.
At about 10 o'clock it just started raining
and raining and raining.
It just was not stopping.
-: This year, on March 13th, here comes the water.
It was raining, the snow was melting,
and then seven inches of rain
and everything's coming but the ice came along.
-: Thursday morning, I believe it was March 14th.
It got very intense,
I got a call about 6:00 AM from our city administrator
who usually calls out earlier, never good news.
-: You know which, we can handle a few inches of rain.
However, the ground was completely frozen solid.
There was nowhere for this rain to go.
-: Friday night I believe,
we were our own island.
There was nobody going in Pierce,
there was nobody going out of Pierce.
-: Well at the time the cows were calving
and what was happening was the
day old calves, newborn calves,
they're following the cows
and they're going through about two to three feet of water.
Those calves start drowning and
we had cows that drowned.
Then after that what happened was,
maybe the calves were alive, but they got sick.
Then, the cold weather came,
snow came, and pneumonia, then
we started losing more calves.
It never happened before.
-: It's Friday, Saturday and Sunday,
they were starting to throw out words like imminent threat
and historic flooding and got our attention.
There's one moment I will never,
ever forget as long as I live.
We were over towards my parents'
house on the east end of town.
And the water was coming up so fast
that we could see the slats
on the siding were just disappearing
because that's how fast the water was coming up.
-: But then coming down to the river
there was just so much ice,
so much water, and no access to anything.
As you've seen, the roads completely washed out,
all of the fence is gone, cabin totaled.
That's how this one went, and
the sad part is we lost people too.
-: It was kind of
a perfect storm.
The temperature was just right, the
precipitation was just right.
I mean just, everything lined up to be a disaster.
-: Nebraska Extension and
other groups have been an integral part
of the recovery process.
Coordinating volunteers and
resources to help those who need it the most.
-: It's brought Nebraska Extension to the forefront
because we are located in all of those counties.
We have the university front door, if you will
in all of those 83 of those 93 counties.
-: Our 4H office was flooded
with 42 inches of water and
much of our resources that we had
on site were destroyed because of the weather.
So we had about $20,000 worth of damage that we are working
on to recover.
An extension of anybody who was
in the area of trying to keep up with our normal jobs.
Plus adding the recovery efforts to it.
You feel a little overwhelmed with it
but you also know there's a lot of good that comes from it.
-: Although Nebraska are strong and self-sufficient people,
everyone needs a hand when responding to disaster.
An army of volunteers has worked tirelessly
across the state to help people get back on their feet.
-: Everyone.
They said, we're okay.
We need to look after you and in the country one
after another showed up and they made sure
that we had something to drink, something to eat, clothes.
-: We have had, I believe five
hay convoys show up in town.
People who had never heard of our town before,
heard what had happened and just called or reached out to me
on my Facebook page and said, what can we do to help?
We have farmers who lost all of their hay supply.
We have farmers who lost a lot of their cattle
a lot of their calves,
on top of losing a lot of their house and
their barns and their machinery.
For the farmers, I think was the first thing.
Like we've got to feed our cows.
If we can't feed cows, we've got nothing.
-: My dad lived over 100
and he always said, remember
it doesn't last forever, but
be ready to give back.
If something's been given to you, give back and
it's so amazing from all over the United States
from around the world, they've come to save us.
-: People need to know that we're all in this together.
We've got the ability to help, reach out and
share expertise, share help, and share support.
It's okay to ask for help, 'cause guess what?
Next time it's going to be me, you know?
Next time it's going to be me.
So we're all in this together and
I think that's
what makes Nebraska, Nebraska.
-: We have got the most amazing people all the way around us.
And yes, I've always been so proud of Nebraska.
But then you go all over the country and say
look what we have right at our fingertips.
We have it.
And our kids, I'm proud of them.
I'm so proud of them.
-: There's been some amazing things that have
happened behind the scenes that
people don't even realize or see.
So it's definitely restored my faith in humanity.
It makes me glad I live here.
(light music)