Recent heavy rains and more forecast for Saturday night and Sunday night could lead to the evacuation of residents along waterways.
In Sarpy County, the Platte River has begun flooding, Lt. Mark Trapp of the Sarpy County Sheriff's Office said Saturday.
He said residents on or near the Platte River, specifically those near Iske Place south of Bellevue and Villa Springs south of Springfield, should be prepared to evacuate if water levels continue to rise or threaten their property.
The Sarpy County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue Unit has been making contact with residents and will be available to assist with stranded individuals. Trapp said it is unknown at this time when the water levels will stop rising.
In the past 24 hours, rainfall at Omaha's Eppley Airfield was .22 of an inch, said Dave Fobert, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Valley, Neb. However, so far this month, the Omaha metro area has received about 5 inches of rain. More storms Saturday night and Sunday night will bring even more rain, he said.
Fobert said there are flooding concerns all across the state. He said the most severe are the Platte River and the Elkhorn River near Waterloo, which is expected to flood in the next few days.
A storm system moved east across Nebraska in the predawn hours Saturday, knocking out windows with hail and covering state highways and city streets with water.
At 2:22 a.m., 73 mph winds were reported at the Hastings airport, and widespread wind damage was considered likely by the National Weather Service.
A high-wind warning for central Nebraska, that included Lexington, Kearney, Grand Island, Loup City, St. Paul and Cairo was scheduled to be in effect until 7 a.m.
Said Shawn Jacobs, meteorologist with NWS in North Platte: "It's been a very active night."
Such activity was expected but not welcome. A number of central Nebraska communities along the Elkhorn River were on high alert Friday night as flood concerns grew.
Any additional rain could cause problems in a number of areas across the state, said Bill Taylor, another weather service meteorologist, because the ground is saturated, and rivers and streams have swollen after three days of rainfall.
Some city streets remained closed in Arlington as Bell Creek crested.
In Nickerson, the community continued sandbagging efforts along Maple Creek, said Bill Pook, the federal emergency management director for the area.
“They are very much experienced with flooding from Maple Creek,” Pook said. “In Nickerson, they were making sandbags in advance.”
The weather service office in Valley said many county roads in Colfax, Dodge and Platte Counties remained underwater and closed.
The service warned people not to go boating or tubing on the Platte and Elkhorn Rivers in Dodge, Douglas, Sarpy and Saunders Counties, though those rivers were still within their banks Friday night.
“The flows are very fast,” said Becky Kern, a meteorologist with the weather service. “Even though it's not flooding, its providing a very dangerous environment.”
Though what the storm left in western Nebraska on Friday night and early Saturday morning was unpleasant, there were no reported injuries. According to Jacobs, reported effects included:
Large hail breaking out the windows of the west side of a house about 30 miles southwest of North Platte.
Nebraska Highway 91 underwater northwest of Taylor, in Loup County, and Nebraska Highway 92 inundated near Merna, in Custer County.
Cars sliding off roads in the Broken Bow area due to heavy rains.
In Sidney in the Nebraska Panhandle, flash floods struck in the center of town after about 3 inches of rain fell in 45 minutes, said James Collins, the local emergency management director.
The water receded relatively quickly, Collins said, but with the drainage ditches at capacity and more rain forecast overnight, the town was bracing for more.
There was also flash flooding in rural areas of Kimball, Morrill, Garden and Deuel Counties, he said.
In response to the flooding and storm damage across the state this month, Gov. Dave Heineman declared a state of emergency, allowing affected areas to get access to state and federal resources.
In Iowa, a flood warning was issued at locales along the Nishnabotna River: near Red Oak in Montgomery County, Hancock in Pottawattamie County and Randolph in Fremont County. The West Nishnabotna was expected to reach flood stage of 19 feet by Saturday evening, according to the weather service.
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