Lord willing and the creek don’t rise…

View from viaduct in front of Daycos

Over the past few weeks, our area in Nebraska has seen record amounts of rainfall, and in the past few days, we have seen smaller communities upsteam from Norfolk battle against flood waters. Yesterday it was our turn to deal with the overflowing Elkhorn River. Since our office is located less than half a mile from river, at the point which appeared to be most vulnerable, we were watching the events fairly closely. Early in the day, it did not appear to be a serious threat to us, as the water was over the flood height of 12 feet, but was expected to crest around 14 feet by noon  and only cause some lowland flooding closer to the river.

As the afternoon progressed, we started to grow more concerned. Over my lunch hour, I drove down toward the river, and saw that the water had progressed further than expected. By 3:15 in the afternoon, the water was close enough that we could walk up the viaduct in front of our building and view the oncoming water. By 4 pm, it was clear the water was continuing to rise, and fairly rapidly. We were fortunate to have a connection with our local mayor, and she and I had a discussion about the likelihood of our office flooding. The city officials with her at their Command Center in the Police station were concerned. The flooding was not following projections, and was continuing to rise. The river was now expected to crest above 17 feet, and we were told anything above 17 feet would be “really, really bad”. Based on that information, we made the decision to prepare for flooding.

Our main concern was the 1,877 boxes of customers’ shipment files we had in storage in our basement storage facility. We store them in the basement because it is the safest place for them in the event of tornadoes, but obviously not the best place in a flood. We started by calling our friends at Andrews Van Lines about the possibility of using one of their trailers to temporarily store the boxes, and within 15 minutes, an Andrews truck was pulling up to our door. Then we put the call out to employees (by this time it was 5 pm, and only a handful of employees were still here) that we needed help, and within minutes, people started showing up to help. Employees, spouses, children, and friends all came to lend their assistance. We probably had around 50 people show up within an hour to help. And we needed all of them, and 2 1/2 hours of backbreaking work, but we were able to get all the boxes moved out of the basement and into the Andrews truck.

Daycos' employees, family members, and friends load the Andrews truck

Then all we could do was wait, and watch the water. We had the one of the best vantage points in the city to watch the water rise, and hundreds and hundreds of our fellow citizens joined us to take a look, until the police closed off public access. (If we had been smart enough to charge for parking, we could have made a fortune.) Finally around 9 PM  the river crested at 16.85 feet, just below the 17 feet mark that would have been very bad for us. When we finally went home around 11 PM, it was clear our building was not going to be flooded.

We were very fortunate. Some of the largest employers in Norfolk suffered flood damage, including a large grocery distribution center just across the street from us.  And in the most unfortunate news from the flood, there were 3 workers who were examing a railroad bridge when it collapsed into the flood waters, and rescuers have only been able to find 2 of the workers.

So while we are very, very sore this morning, and very, very tired, we are all counting our blessings. I am so appreciative to all of our employees, and their friends and families who came and helped on a moment’s notice. We are also grateful to Marlene, Arliss, Dennis, and the whole crew at Andrews for their assistance.

We will soon start the long process of putting the boxes back into the basement, and other than a slight delay in file requests, our customers should not notice any disruption of service. In addition to the pictures posted here, we have a lot more posted on our facebook page at www.facebook.com/daycos. You can also see news accounts and more pictures of the flood at our local newspaper’s website.

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