Historic Flooding!

What a crazy past few days we have had! We’ve had quite a cold February and beginning of March and the he week it finally decides to warm up, Mother Nature also decided to send 2 inches of rain. This rain, mixed with melting snow and frozen ground sure did cause havoc in Osmond along with so many other communities in Nebraska.  The rain started overnight on Tuesday night and continued Wednesday morning. When I took Harper to school on Wednesday, there were a couple area that seemed high but not a big deal. Little did I know, outside of town water was quickly rising. Around 10:35, I got the call that school was letting out at 11:00 due to the flooding.  Tyler left Norfolk around noon and finally after hitting multiple roads with water on them, ended up in Osmond just before 2pm, after he had a tractor escort from Jared’s house.  

Tyler went and filled sand bags with lots of others to protect town. The water just continued to rise and before supper time, there was a river running through the town of Osmond. The devastation is just beyond words and anything we have ever seen. We certainly didn’t expect anything remotely close to this happening.  We are so beyond thankful and blessed that we did not have any damage at our house- we are pretty much at the highest point in Osmond. So many people are without shelter or have tons of work that needs done to their house or business. 

Main Street in Osmond. So many businesses have damage. 

This is just down the street from us, across from the hospital. Mr.Hamm (Harper’s superintendent) lives in the green house and was home sick. He said he awoke because the ice chunks kept hitting his house. There were lots of large random ice chunks that floated in from the creek that was still frozen at the time. (I had to steal a picture from Amanda) 

 

Aerial view of Osmond. 



This is the opposite side of town. One of the companies on Main Street had lost their big tanks all around town. 







Water started coming up from the gutter system. There is a lot of damage from the sewer in this area, just down the hill from us. 



The flood waters brought tons and tons of corn stalks in with it. 


This is the road that Tyler’s parents live on. The road is completely washed away from either side of the bridge. 

It’s pretty mind blowing to realize this damage is just around the Osmond area and is just a tiny bit of the damage done. There was very restricted movement in to and out of town because of all the road closings in the area. Tyler and I both stayed home from work Thursday simply because we literally could not get there. Harper didn’t have school the rest of the week and not on Monday either. We are truly so blessed. The town has had an outpouring of help and is getting cleaned up nicely. We have a great community where everyone helps everyone! Unfortunately, the entire state of Nebraska will be feeling the effects of this flood for a long time to come. 

State Basketball Fun!

This past weekend our beloved Osmond Basketball Boys team made it to the state tournament! They’ve had an awesome season and made it to the championship game but just fell a little short of the win. We are so proud of the team and all their success this season! Each player holds a special place in Carter’s heart! He certainly looks up to this team! 

Keaton Timmerman is Carter’s favorite player! He has a pin of Keaton to wear for every game! Note- that is not a picture of Harlow! 

Harlow didn’t go to a ton of games during the regular season but she tolerated the games pretty well! We had to get some running around in between some of the games! She loved cheering during the games! 

These two boys have a strong love for basketball. They  play basketball constantly when together! They had to wear their jerseys to the game! 

These girls are bright eyed here but by the end of the games they looked like zombies! The 8:45 start time sure made it a struggle to make it through. It was an exhausting weekend for all of us! 

We got in plenty of fun outside of basketball! The kids loved being at the same hotel as the Koehler clan! They had a great time at the pool and were so excited to swim! We also had a large group that joined us at a kids play area- it was a fun group! 

 We definitely had a fun weekend!