Bus Swept Away By Flood of May 1950

Memories of Floods

Salt Creek ran close behind the house on first street. Later when his family moved up to 3rd and B Street, the C B and Q railroad tracks separated their home from Grandma and Grandpa Harris at 4th and B streets. With Salt Creek so close flooding was always a concern. Bob could remember three bad ones. One flood he described,
"The waters got so high at our house that we had to flee to Grandpa and Grandma Harris's house. The water kept rising and eventually we had to go up to their attic. Finally a boat came and took us to Park School which had been set up for flood victims. We spent the night sleeping on cots. Actually it was kind of fun and scary, an adventure. The bad side was the tetanus shots we had to get."

Historical Background

Information obtained from an article published by the US Government Resources Division.

Five major Nebraska Floods listed by the National Weather Service are: "...the 1881 Missouri River flood, the 1935 Republican River Flood, the 1947 Medicine Creek/Republican River flood, the 1993 Missouri Basin flood and the four major floods of 1950 from May to July in south central and southeast Nebraska that together claimed 25 lives."

The article goes on to report: "..Late in the afternoon of May 8, heavy rain began falling over an area that included the head waters of the Little Nemaha River, Salt Creek, and Weeping Water Creek and over parts of the basin of the Big Blue River."

The river crested at Unadilla about midnight of May 8, covering the flood plain to depths of nearly 10 feet. Several farm homes and bridges were destroyed in this vicinity. About a mile east of Unadilla a school bus was trapped by the rapidly rising waters. The 17500 pound vehicle was swept from the highway and carried two miles to be deposited in the river channel near Syracuse. The lives of 7 persons were claimed by this misfortune. Between Unadilla and Syracuse, the C B and Q railroad line was torn up, bridges were washed out, and sheds and machinery were swept away from low lying farms.

"Salt Creek crested at the gaging station at Lincoln, Nebraska, on May 9, 1950, at 9 am. It inundated large areas of low-lying bridges, highways, and railways. Upstream from Lincoln, agricultural lands received considerable damage."

The article further noted . . ."most of the runoff came from a relatively small area above Roca."

Bob described it as a wall of water following the railroad tracks right into the South Russian Bottoms where he lived,