The water has receded and the interstate is open for traffic again for the first time since the first week of June. Who would have ever thought the Mighty MO could wreak such havoc in this part of the country for nearly five months! I started hearing about the flood warnings before we left for harvest last spring. The anticipated flooding was supposed to continue for a couple of months. A couple of months?

On Friday, Plan A for the day went to Plan B when we found out our friends from the Sioux Falls area wouldn’t be making the trek south. We sat around most of the day staring at each other. Taylor and Callie had the day off of school due to teacher in service and we were bored. It was a beautiful day so I suggested we take a drive to Nebraska City and hop on the interstate just to see what we could see.  What we saw was devastation in a huge way! Where fields used to be, there was now sand, mud, logs and debris. It was like nothing I have ever seen.  The homes are still vacant and there are visible signs of the high water level everywhere. The countryside was NOTHING like I remembered.

We drove north of Omaha and got off the interstate at the Blair exit. On our way back south again, we took a tour of the area that Jim USED to haul propane to. The river communities are no longer there. What’s left is a mess. A mess that is so extensive I can’t imagine how it could ever be what it used to be. So many lives have been changed.

I’m not sure who’s to blame for the amount of water that raced from Montana to Nebraska all summer long. I hear the Army Corp of Engineers are being blamed. I hope the flood of 2011 has been a learning experience and flooding of this magnitude will never happen again.

Department of Road employees were taking down the wall of sand that was put there to help spare the town of Hamburg, IA.

The levee that was built around the town of Hamburg, IA.

Signs of harvest. The pile of corn was pretty impressive!

These grain bins looked like they just fell into a hole. I’m not sure if this is where they were prior to the flood. The running water just created a large hole around the three. This was right along I-29.

The most visible raging water damage along I-29. You can tell it wasn’t a peaceful flow of water right here.

The railroad tracks are suspended in the air because the water washed away the soil.

I took this picture because you can see how high the water level was in the trees and bushes.

The Mighty MO back where she’s supposed to be!

We started down this road that was familiar to Jim but couldn’t get very far.

We did make it down one road that was open to a river community that he hauled propane to just last winter. This is one of many pivots with its tires in the air.

Jim said this was one of the nicer homes in this community.

The sand looks like snow drifts.