Regional emergency team continues to monitor South Platte flood

After record-setting floods

in Colorado last week, floodwaters

are currently moving

up the South Platte River

and well into Nebraska.

Sidney was hardly immune

to storm water issues last

week. Flash flooding on

Sept. 9 made navigating the

city difficult and sometimes

dangerous.

Region 21 emergency

manager Ron Leal helped

those in Big Springs prepare

for flooding earlier this

week.

Leal brought Command

One, the RV that serves as

the Emergency Operations

Vehicle for region 21—which

includes Deuel, Cheyenne,

Garden and Morrell counties—

to Big Springs on

Monday. Leal and Deuel

County Sheriff Adam

Hayward posted the bus at

the Big Springs fire station.

Leal and Hayward held

meetings with area officials

in the EOV this week.

Currently they are monitoring

river levels, which

crested Wednesday night

between 9 p.m. and midnight,

according to Leal.

“There’s flooding just

along the river,” Leal said.

“It came up close to Big

Springs Wednesday night.”

The town of Big Springs

assisted Leal and his team

with sandbagging at culverts

on the east and west sides

of town. He estimates that

they used around 18,000-

20,000 sandbags on the job.

He’s not sure how long

he’ll be in the area to help

out Big Springs, but plans to

leave Command One there

for meetings and briefings

for three or four more days.

The National Weather

Service informed Leal that

the river was expected to

stay at crest level for four to

six more days.

Emergency management

had to close down the link

between Big Springs and

the interstate due to flooding

and also evacuated two

gas stations near the highway

on Wednesday.

“The community of Big

Springs was awesome,” Leal

said. “They all came out to

sandbag the first day and

night.”

The city of Boulder

received around 17 inches of

rain during last week alone,

which brought the city’s precipitation

to 30 inches for

the year, the most measured

in 120 years of records.