Record rainfall causes problems

 1 comment(s)  
 E-mail Story
 Print Story
  Share

 digg it!
 Facebook
 del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit

Text Size: 

Tools Sponsor

By ZACH PLUHACEK / Lincoln Journal Star

Tah and Kuong Nguyen feared they might drown at the corner of Highlands Boulevard and NW Seventh Street in Lincoln.

They left home Saturday evening, and their 2000 Toyota Sienna was quickly deep in stormwater.

“When she got out ... the water was up to her chest,” their son William Nguyen said Sunday.

View Slideshow

A man and wife wait for law enforcement officials and a tow truck shortly after safely escaping their van, which had filled with floodwaters at the corner of Highlands Boulevard and NW 7th Street in Lincoln Saturday night. As indicated by the highwater line on the white fence, the floodwaters were approximately even with the bottom of the van's windows when the couple got out. (Doug Carroll)

The pair managed to wade to a neighbor’s house.

More than 4 inches of rain fell in Lincoln over the weekend. Saturday’s total alone more than doubled the previous May 5 record set 65 years ago.

Storms should taper off by late this week, according to the National Weather Service.

“The next couple days we’re predicting less than we’ve gotten so far,” said John Pollack, a forecaster with the weather service. “Overall, our best guesstimate is that Lincoln might be in line for another inch or two of rain this week.”

The series of downpours caused scattered damage to homes and vehicles across the city.

Lincoln Police Capt. Genelle Moore said at least three cars were stuck in the flood in the Highlands neighborhood. At about 6:30 p.m., officers there noticed street flooding as high as car windows.

Around Air Park, Moore said, children were swimming in runoff.

Throughout the city, flooding damaged basements.

Marc Daniels lives near 48th Street and St. Paul Avenue, next to a drainage system that typically has about two feet of water.

Saturday evening, water from it had flooded houses and downed a shed.

“It was almost cresting over the bridge that was built on St. Paul,” he said. “It was flowing really good.”

Two large areas of the city had to be closed: Wilderness Park near Salt Creek and several blocks of Old Cheney Road near the Highway 77 bypass, said Lincoln/Lancaster Emergency Management Director Douglas Ahlberg.

“When the ground gets saturated like that, (the water) doesn’t have any place to go,” he said. “It just sits.”

Reach Zach Pluhacek at 473-7395 or zpluhacek@journalstar.com.