Year in Review - Flood waters wash over Nebraska, wiping out bridges, buildings
March 20, 2019
HARTINGTON — Flood waters swept through the Cedar County Fairgrounds last week, causing damage to many of the buildings and even completely moving one of the 4-H barns.
Water swept in from the west, across 564th Avenue, carrying corn stalks, mud and debris with it.
Some of the corn stalks wound up in the fence, weighing it down and ultimately toppling it over.
More cornstalks can be found in all of the animal pens, and some of the buildings as well.
Cedar County Fair Board Vice President Jim Specht assessed the damage on Thursday, and said each day it looked better in terms of water draining so that work can begin to repair the damage.
On Friday, deep spots of mud made it impossible to drive into the Fairgrounds.
Trinity Lutheran representatives inspected the Lutheran Lunch Stand and said it is obvious that at least three inches of water covered the floor of the building, but at this time it appears the facility suffered only limited damage.
Specht has checked each building and while there is some damage, he admits things could have been worse.
The worst damage came to the 4-H hog barn that was lifted off the concrete and moved approximately 100 yards to the east. When looking at it from the road, only slight damage can be seen of the show arena that was clipped by the hog barn as it floated away. The barn also took out a utility pole before coming to rest in the middle of a field.
The rest of the animal barns handled the water pretty well, but there is still mud, slime and cornstalks that will need to be shoveled out of those areas.
March 20, 2019
HARTINGTON — During trying times, the character of a community really shines through.
That was the case last week when students from four schools needed to stay in town following Wednesday’s District Speech meet at Cedar Catholic.
Flash flood waters closed many roads by the time District Speech finished at 7 p.m., Wednesday night, forcing some schools to alter travel plans.
Neligh-Oakdale went to Yankton for the night, Elkhorn Valley went to Wayne, but Boyd County, North Central, West Holt, and Central Valley all stayed in Hartington.
As the day carried on and weather progressed, news of roads to the west closing started to make its way to officials at the Cedar Catholic school.
Cedar Catholic coach Audrey Freeman and HNS coach A.J. Johnson handled many of the responsibilities for carrying out the event, leaving Activities Director Chad Cattau to figure out logistics once the event wrapped up.
“We began the initial discussion with teams around the time we found out that many roads going west off of Highway 81 were closing,” said Cattau. “This was around noon. Some of the teams had driven close to three hours to get here, with one even coming on Tuesday, so I knew it would not be a great idea to wait until the end of the meet and then try to scramble to find them accommodations.“
Fortunately, Cattau was not the only one with this concern.
He started receiving calls from businesses and Hartington residents asking if there was anything they could do to help.
“My initial plan was to try and round up air mattresses, pillows and blankets for everyone and we would open up our school for them to stay,” said Cattau. “Most of the teams were able to head home, but four of them had to stay. These four schools completely filled the two hotels so if another school would have had to stay, we probably would have had to have them stay at the school.”
Two schools would stay at the Cobblestone Inn & Suites, and another two schools stayed at the Hartington Hotel - a place that would not have been available this time last year due to new owners being in the midst of renovations to open the business.
Cattau did not need to reach out to anyone to see about availability though. In fact, there was an outpouring of support to ensure these students from other schools were properly taken care of until it was safe to travel home.
Jess Rohan at the Hartington Hotel said that Security Bank, the Bank of Hartington, the city, and countless Hartington residents provided meals and checked in to see if students needed anything during their stay.
Music filled the air as kids played piano and sang in the hallways, and Rohan says the students went to Dollar General in full force, buying candy, socks, and other necessities for the stay.
“The heart of Hartington” shined bright, said Rohan, as she saw the community support for these students during a trying time.