A great deal of effort goes into the making of flood maps. Specialists use high-accuracy digital elevation data, peak stream flow estimates, hydraulic models, contour intervals, flood probability estimates and GIS mapping technology to determine what land is in a flood zone and what land is not. It's a complicated process and there is a degree of uncertainty.

So it's nice to know that all the hard work put into these maps by the specialists who create them and the communities that adopt and abide by them pays off during a flood event. That's exactly what happened in Schuyler this past spring when northeast sections of the city as well as portions of Colfax County were inundated with water from Shell Creek.

"The flooded areas corresponded to the same areas on the maps," explained Mary Peschel, Schuyler's city administrator, clerk, treasurer and floodplain administrator. "You could visibly see where the water stopped. It was almost identical with the maps."

Schuyler's Flood Insurance Rate Maps had been updated and reissued in August 2002. The city has been a member of the National Flood Insurance Program since 1990 - an important year for the community because Schuyler received its first floodplain maps in 1990, and a flood ravaged the area.

"In 1990, one or two basements collapsed," Peschel recalled. "I didn't hear of that happening this time." But a majority of houses in Schuyler's floodplain were built before the 1990 maps were issued and...

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1. Eight Presidents Later: The Wood River Diversion Project

2. Floodplains: Don't Mess with Mother Nature: Part 1

3. Floodplains: They Will Protect Us If We Protect Them: Part 2

4. Floods Happen: What You Can Do To Stay Safe

5. Flood of the Century: Remembering the Great Midwest Flood of 1993

6. A Celebration of Nebraska's Wetlands