FEMA Disaster #1590
(Heavy Rain and Hail in Central Nebraska)
May 11/12, 2005

Designated Counties: Adams, Buffalo, Fillmore, Frontier, Hall, Hamilton, Howard, Kearney, Merrick, Seward, York.

Links:
FEMA Web Page about this Disaster

Background:
Beginning on May 11 and continuing through May 12, a severe storm system moved through south-central Nebraska bringing hail, torrential rains and strong winds. According to the High Plains Regional Climate Center, rainfall totals in Adams and Hall County reached historical 100-year levels.
On May 12, an Emergency Declaration was signed by the Governor of Nebraska.
On May 13, the Governor requested Joint Federal/State Preliminary Damage Assessments for 13 counties.
The Governor requested a major disaster declaration on May 27, 2005.
On June 23, President Bush signed a major disaster declaration FEMA 1590-DR-NE.
Public Assistance categories A-G were designated for the following counties; Adams, Buffalo, Fillmore, Frontier, Hall, Hamilton, Howard, Kearney, Merrick, Seward, and York and Hazard Mitigation Grant Program for the entire state.

Disaster Assistance (by County, Public Assistance only):
Adams: $760,684
Buffalo: $101,512
Fillmore: $45,972
Frontier: $15,536
Hall: $447,856
Hamilton: $77,566
Howard: $58,723
Kearney: $121,218
Merrick: $99,989
Seward: $142,663
York: $140,621
TOTAL: $2,012,339

Business Impacts:
Unknown

Critical Facilities:
Unknown

Road/Transportation Status:
Unknown

PHOTO LOG

Mammatus Clouds over Hastings

Although they look fake, these clouds are very real! They look this way because they are the upper-level "exhaust" of air that is lost from the back side of a supercell thunderstorm. These clouds are rare (especially with such good definition seen here) because it takes extremely strong updrafts inside a thunderstorm to produce the exhaust at high levels in the atmosphere - which then descend and take the strange appearance. The name "mammatus" is derived from the same Latin word that gives us "mammary". Any time you talk about strong updrafts in a thunderstorm, you usually have hail, and this storm had plenty of it. Hail up to the size of baseballs caused extensive damage on the eastern side of Hastings, the area hardest hit by hail from this storm. Hail that large is an excellent indication of the strength of the updraft, since it is the force of the air alone that is lifting hail that large above the freezing layer in large thunderstorms.

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Other Cloud Pictures


These pictures are of a wall cloud in Adams County. They show definite evidence of rotation, and the second one shows "scud" cloud, which is commonly confused with a tornado.

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Hail in Hastings

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Flooding in Grand Island and Hastings

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Road flooding in Grand Island

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Golden Corral on Highway 281 in Grand Island

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Underpass in Hastings

SUCCESSFUL MITIGATION!!!

The Wood River Diversion was constructed by the Corps of Engineers and finished in 2004. A similar flood occurred in Grand Island in 1967 and caused major damage - millions and millions of dollars. In comparison, the May 2005 flood event was not really a flood in Grand Island because the diversion worked as designed and passed the bulk of the extra flood flow around the city. According to the Corps, this diversion project has already nearly paid for itself from reduced flood damages from the May 2005 event.

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Water in the diversion channel, channel is almost bank-full

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At top center is where the flood flow is diverted off to the east (right in picture).
Note: Wood River continues straight up from the diversion structure, and the Stuhr Museum buildings are dry.
This entire area was flooded in 1967.

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Energy-diffusing structure near the diversion point - diversion structure is seen at center-left.
Photo is taken from the city park on the opposite side of the river -
camping pads from park seen on the right side of the previous photo.