Cleanup continues after severe storms

I wanted to provide an update this week on our response to severe storms that unleashed numerous tornados in Nebraska and several other Midwestern states in recent days.

After last Thursday’s storms, Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy and I were in central Nebraska to observe firsthand some of the damage. While the light of day showed that damage was not as widespread as we’d initially thought, tornadoes and high winds still destroyed several buildings on the Buffalo County Fairgrounds and damaged more than 30 homes and businesses in Buffalo and Hamilton counties.

Rain soaked the town of Platte Center and floodwaters traveled downstream to Schuyler and other communities near creeks and rivers over the weekend. More than 250 homes and buildings in Schuyler were damaged. Platte Center had water damage to several public buildings, two local parks and nearly 50 homes.

Damage was also reported in several counties along the Kansas border including Thayer, Jefferson and Gage Counties, which were hit when a second round of storms came through Thursday evening, which was more severe than local officials had initially thought.

Immediately, personnel from the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency, the State Patrol and the Nebraska Army National Guard were activated to staff our state emergency operations center, along with staff from the Departments of Roads, Environmental Quality and Health and Human Services. These teams worked with others in the field at several command posts throughout the weekend to assist with local cleanup and recovery efforts.

I want to applaud the assistance provided by volunteer coordinators from organizations including the Salvation Army, American Red Cross and United Way in several communities. Volunteers have helped open temporary shelters for those whose homes had flooded, fed emergency responders and citizens affected by the storms, and organized teams to help pick up storm debris.

Our recovery efforts will continue in the days and weeks ahead. At the state level, much of the focus for our emergency management team is completing damage reports and assessments from a 40 county area into estimates that we will share with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA teams have been called in to help survey damage to homes and businesses, in the hope of securing some assistance for individual property owners.

The quick response we saw in the aftermath of these recent storms is reflective of the preparation that so many cities and counties have done during the past several years. Cities and counties have taken part in emergency planning and training exercises, developed mutual aid agreements with neighboring towns, and expanded their communications ability by building regional networks allowing first responders in several counties to share information.

Each of these play a key role in responding to emergencies of all kinds. This most recent example shows how valuable preparation at the local level can be. Our efforts have received national recognition, and I want to commend everyone involved in emergency response at the local level. The response to this round of storms is further evidence that local communities take their emergency preparedness seriously.

This has already been a very active storm season and we’ve been fortunate that some of the stronger storms have tracked around Nebraska. While water damage and storm debris removal is an inconvenience, we can be very grateful that we had only a few minor injuries.

With additional storms in the forecast, there is always the potential for bigger storms and more flooding - particularly given the rain so many areas have had in recent weeks. These storms are a good reminder to us all of the need to be alert and ready to respond. Most importantly, this is another example of Nebraskans working together to help one another.

Dave Heineman of Fremont is governor of Nebraska. He can be reached at P.O. Box 94848, Lincoln NE 68509-4848, (402) 471-2244, fax: (402) 471-6031 or e-mail at his Web site, www.gov.state.ne.us.