Ice and snow melt. Spring rain. It floods lowlands near rivers. Cycle repeats.
This was a 500 year event. Places that have never had flooding in recorded history had water. Places that the Army Corp had said were safe got wiped out.
Nebraska has more miles of waterways than any other state. Granted, most are small streams and creeks. But the all flooded.
The old farm place where I grew up had a small stream about an 1/8th of a mile away. The house was up hill from that. The creek got with in 40 yards of the house.
In the 125 years my family has been in the area and on that farm, that has never happened.
Fremont was 100% cut off for a few days. The records there go back to before the civil war when it was a trading post. There are no records of floods like that. Granted, the records really only get good around the 1870’s or so.
And it wasn’t the flood. It was the flood everywhere east of around York county and record breaking blizzard everywhere west. The loss of property, livestock, and infrastructure is still being calculated. Many cattlemen have yet to figure out just how bad their losses are, and many local communities have yet to figure out what roads are safe (local farmers are starting to build temporary roads).
Again, this is my home area. The destruction is beyond describing. A normal flood wouldn’t have been “well, we can fish in the field ponds again!” A normal blizzard would be barely a note. Record breaking flooding and blizzards at the same time, during calving season, is a double wammy.