Good to get a report from someone who's on the scene: thanks. Good luck--from now on--to all you folks in Nebraska; and let's do something about climate change!

So sorry to hear how badly Nebraska has been affected. I really don't know how much more of all this people can take. We better start turning things around like Melissa says.

Thank goodness you're safer, Cynthia. I pray more people would take climate change seriously while it's still possible to DO anything about it.

I had no idea this was happening in Nebraska, we rarely hear anything from that region, but of course the news here is so preoccupied with domestic matters.... I enjoyed the wilder, less travelled parts of the State... so we're very sorry to hear this and very much send our sympathies to all affected...

It is really a horrific disaster for people and animals. I have been reading of many newborn calves separated from their mothers due to blizzard conditions and freezing to death. Also, animals who didnt die in the floods are now starving due to no feed available or farmers not being able to get to them and many heroic efforts of people driving hundreds of miles around the flood zones to get to their animals to feed them each day.

It will take years to recover from this physically, emotionally and economically. I hope the president will offer lots of aid and help to people who need it.

Much of our nations food supplies will be lost this year because many farms have been taken out.

Nebraska and the midwest have so many meat packing plants too that will be affected.

My prayers for everyone.

Thank you for sharing your experience and insights, Cynthia! It’s such a harsh reminder of the power of nature, but encouraging to hear how people are reaching out to one another.

Nebraska will definitely be in my prayers. :-)

So sorry this is going on. Sending lots of love and support for everyone.

I have been wondering about your situation, thank you for letting us know. It is difficult to learn of all the devestation in your state. Hoping for the best for everyone affected. My thoughts and prayers are with you all.

I'm so sorry for the midwest right now. The disruption caused to our weather patterns by climate change is just starting to be felt, and it is already a nightmare. Let's all work to change course before it's too late.

Cynthia , thank you for this post and bringing awareness to the situation. I can’t believe how awful it sounds ! It must be heart wreanching on so many levels . I’m so sad to hear all this and can’t even imagine for a minute what these folks are going through.

I had no idea how truly awful it was, and the news outlets don't begin to convey the situation that you've described in heartbreaking detail, Cynthia. The enormity of how close we are to a global disaster should be apparent to all by now, and it's happening much more quickly than even someone as pessimistic as I am could have predicted. As always the animals are the worst and most pitiful victims of this man-made catastrophe, although the hardships to the farmers are also dreadfully severe. How does anyone fix this at this late stage?

Thanks for chiming in with your prayers and heartfelt sentiments. I totally agree that climate change is one of the top international issues needing urgent action, even without gardening to add the extra personal touch. It just blows my mind that this has become a partisan issue when we're all equally at risk. It's not a question of business interests versus environmental - if the planet doesn't survive, neither does business, and when these environmental disasters occur businesses suffer immediately and directly like the rest of the world. Even people in my life that are strongly partisan in other ways agree that climate change is real and needs intervention.

I've actually heard the argument that there has been too MUCH urgency and complex scientific evidence presented about climate change for too long, to the point where it gets dismissed as hype. There seems to be a short-sighted assumption out there that if scientists predict how much worse it's going to get, and that worst hasn't happened yet, then those predictions must not be real. Twenty years ago we would have scoffed at the predicted widespread floods and fires and cyclones and hurricanes as hype, but now that they're happening it seems to be perceived as the "new normal", and not evidence of the increasing urgency of the situation.

Being a perpetual optimist though, I tend to focus on what's feasible in terms of interventions. I think the more we focus on the causes of climate change, the more we allow the argument to stall about disputing those causes rather than focusing on solutions. Frankly the evidence of human contributions to climate change is pervasive and inescapable, but even if the main cause was methane from cows (c'mon, really?), our only options are to change what we do as humans. If we're not part of the solution, we're part of the problem. There are some sensible first steps that shouldn't be that controversial - emission controls, global agreements, recycling, renewable energy, reforestation - anything that reduces pollution benefits us all immediately as well as making a first step toward the bigger problem.

The second thing that I think we need to keep reminding our friends and neighbors is that we can't keep moving the bar and getting complacent about natural disasters. Hundreds of deaths from cyclones or hurricanes or fires aren't media hype - each one is a genuine tragedy that needs our understanding and response. Just because they're happening more often in more places doesn't make them any less tragic. Indeed, it becomes even more important to take the momentum from our humanitarian responses to those personal and regional tragedies to spur on further steps to minimize the long-term impacts of these climate changes down the road.

Cynthia

So sorry to hear that this is happening. I haven't seen or heard any of this on the news. Sending prayers to everyone affected.

Cynthia,your last post really "hit the nail on the head", IMO.

I’m glad to hear you’re safe, Cynthia. I’m sorry about the devastation and loss so many are experiencing there. I can’t imagine how difficult it is.

It really does seem to be the new normal now with the disasters. Its like Russian Roulette every few months, with the weather, never knowing which side of the country (and the world) the disaster is going to strike.

Marine animals are dying from microplastics in their stomachs and are basically living in our filth (pesticides, trash, other hazardous chemicals). I could go on but it makes me feel sick.

I had no idea this was going on, and to the extent it is until you made this post. I admit I am not one to keep up with the news. Most news is bad news, so stopped keeping up with that a long time ago. I leave that to my husband. I just like to be out in nature.

My prayers for all of you affected. Climate change does need to have steps taken. I wholeheartedly agree with you. About it seems like the new Norm. My thoughts are with you.

So sorry to hear...Prayers!

Glad to hear you are safe! When was the last time your area had this kind flood? There must be a way to prevent this from happening again. Water overflow paths need to be created. Our area had this done after a great flood many years ago. I hope people in the flooding zone all have flood insurance. How is the water level now? Online schooling would be a good way for disaster recovery . Does your univ excise DR ? Hope education continues without any delays. Prayers sent from The Great Lakes.

There are a thousand things people can do, and another thousand things governments and organizations can do, if they have the will. For flooding: don't build in floodplains, and don't grant permits for building in floodplains. Plant trees and other plants to anchor the soil. I live in a slide prone area--and the land our house is built on, and all our property below it, is slowly dropping--and I learned a good while ago not to radically disturb the soil as it provokes landslides. Practice conservation in our personal habits, of course, not wasting water and being careful about waste of all kinds. Transfer if possible to non-polluting energy sources, and be thrifty with all. We're blameworthy here: we drive to town a lot--DD has to catch the bus for school there, and his daily trip to town is DH's chief entertainment--and we heat with wood. I was heartened to read the other day that a group of big companies are working to encourage the switch from coal- and petroleum-based energy to renewable, non-polluting sources.

Jeri's right, it's economic costs that are going to make people listen. When people can no longer afford to insure their homes and businesses, when food prices go up, when great swathes of low-lying heavily populated coastline get destroyed (my sister's trailer in a coastal Florida town is nine feet above sea level), when my dairy farming neighbors and other agriculturalists in our area can't grow crops because of drought, and see their land vanish in slides from torrential rains--THEN we'll start to see people paying attention to climate change. My brother in Florida, a state with a lot of conservatives, tells me that the government is paying attention and taking steps, it's just that you can't CALL it "climate change", which is a term liberals use.

Reality has a loud voice.

There are pe that live in my town that used to live in Nebraska. They still have family there and have been sharing pictures. Unbelievable! My heart goes out to them. Hurricane Michael was the first storm I have been through that actually scared me. It was a long night spent in the dark in the hall. Devastated our area. It was days before I could drive acro town to see my daughter. i can’t grasp all the water and mud theit farmers are dealing with. You can move fallen trees, but that other...wow...

nippstress, do you have any information on which agencies are being most effective in relief efforts?

I remember a disaster or two ago (Houston, maybe?) that locals were telling us that some of the largest and most famous agencies weren't really getting the resources to them, and suggested donations to smaller, local charities instead.

Melissa, I totally agree that if we want to encourage community responses to the hardships that will result from climate change, we can't call it climate change. I am an optimist but I'm cynical enough to predict that when food prices rise or access to services is unavailable or too expensive, the blame will be attributed to business or other more short-term effects. I'm afraid that when food costs rise, the ones that will feel the brunt of the pain will be the farmers and the distributors and other processors in the middle will still get their cuts. I don't think we appreciate farmers and their workers enough since we don't usually directly see their contributions to the food on our table.

Summers, I agree that we need to be very cautious about building on flood plains but for most of Nebraska there simply aren't flood plains. We're a pretty arid state, particularly when you get out to the rural west and north parts of the state that are the worst affected. There are only three substantial rivers in the whole state, and the Missouri only skirts the right side of the state without much contribution to this flooding. The Platte is more often dry than flooded even in an above average rainfall year, and the Niobrara hasn't flooded in the 30 years or so I've lived here. I grew up in Michigan and spent 10 years in Wisconsin where there's natural water nearly everywhere, and it has been a real culture shock to move to a place where natural water is almost nowhere. A vast majority of the lakes in the state (and there aren't many) are created lakes, and they're too small for boating except for one lake in the far west. What created this flooding was record amounts of snow this winter that lasted till early March, then a rapid warm up that had it melting within a week and there simply wasn't anywhere for that much water to go.

Rae, that's a good question about which agencies are better at getting aid to the affected communities. Most of the local aid that I've heard of has come through churches and food banks that ferry the supplies up to the communities. A lot of the aid is also needed in labor to clean up affected communities, so that is also regional individuals driving up to help out. Our regional chain of HyVee grocery stores has been collecting money to send to communities, and I've been donating food and supplies and money through our church and the Lincoln Food Bank.

Thanks for all your good wishes and prayers.

Cynthia