Efforts to move eastern Nebraska village away from frequent flooding stalled • Nebraska Examiner

Since then, almost two dozen houses have been burned to the ground, and patches of dirt remain in the place of some of the purchased houses.

But plans to rebuild the town on higher ground near Logan View High School along U.S. Highway 77 have stalled, and some community leaders believe the move will not happen five years after the flood.

“People are gone,” said Rick Addink, a local mechanic and Winslow Village Council member.

Most of the people who agreed to buyouts, Addick and other opponents of the move say, found new homes in nearby Hooper or Fremont. They estimate that fewer than 10 people are still interested in what they expect will be an expensive undertaking to build a new home amid rising construction costs and create a new town on what is now a cornfield.

But others who supported the move still remain hopeful.

Zach Klein, Winslow fire chief and city councilman, said those interested in moving are treading carefully, trying not to miss out on anything from what is estimated to cost $15 million to $16 million to purchase the new city site. and build roads, sewers and water supply.

But the city’s “relocation committee” – the group planning the relocation – has not met in months, and while an application for federal funds to fund a new sewer system is being considered, efforts continue to find grants for streets and a water system.

“Personally, I would like to see this happen. But maintaining enough momentum is difficult,” Klein said.

“We are very diligent,” he added. “The next few steps are huge.”

“Bomb cyclone” hits

Between 13 and 15 houses remain in Winslow, along with a shuttered bar, a co-op and a hair salon on a deserted main street. The post office is gone, and the community hall where the village office used to be located is closed and awaiting up to $100,000 worth of renovations.

The 2019 “bomb cyclone” flood, which washed out a dam in north-central Nebraska and caused more than $1 billion in damage across the state, was one of a series of floods to hit Winslow, which sits in a wide floodplain along U.S. Highway 77. south of the Elkhorn River.

Since then, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has spent $2.25 million to buy back about 30 properties, according to Erv Portis, the state’s assistant director of emergency management. The buyouts covered about 75% of the property’s pre-flood value, and once it’s bought out, it means the property will become permanent green space.

But Portis said Winslow is now on his own and must seek additional government grants if he hopes to build a new town where the cornfield now sits.

“They need to reach consensus on what they want to do, that’s the first thing. But do they have the funds to build roads, water supply and sewerage systems?” he asked.

“You can’t just move a city,” Portis said.

Residents are divided

The question of whether to move the city continues to divide local opinion.

This spring, an effort to recall three village council members who supported relocation failed due to disagreements over whether the votes of displaced residents who by then were living elsewhere would be counted (they did).

Retired mechanic Don Heinke, a village council member who remained and opposes the move, said the buyout FEMA offered him fell far short of the cost of purchasing a new home. And it didn’t include replacing his large machine shop, a cavernous, heated structure large enough to hold several vehicles, with benches stocked with dozens of tools.

“Towns are dying all over the state and they want to do this?” – Heinke said.

“They should call this new place on the hill Kleinville,” he said to City Councilman Zach Klein, a leading proponent of the move.

A couple of blocks away, Scott Shipman stands on his back porch and surveys two nearby patches of dirt that mark the spots where abandoned homes have recently been burned and buried.

A 55-year-old disabled former elevator repairman, Shipman said his home on Route 77 is paid for and that finding similar housing for him and his 86-year-old mother would be impossible on their fixed incomes, even with FEMA. ransom

So they stayed, thanks to some government help to replace the appliances that were flooded in their basement.

“I’m just worried about the next thing,” he said. “Flood again.”

Addink, who repairs mowers at his shop in Winslow after a shift at a tire repair shop in Hooper, is in a similar situation. His childhood home is paid off, and the FEMA buyout did not include funds to replace his store. Meanwhile, his childhood home is livable again, although he says some renovations still need to be done.

“I told them I would be the last one standing,” he said.

Taking care of city maintenance

Addink hopes the city stays put. He received a pair of floodgates from nearby Scribner that will be used to cap the levee protecting Winslow from flood waters. During the 2019 floods, a water bladder used as a floodgate across a country road failed, causing a torrent of water to rush into the town.

One of Addink’s main concerns is how the city council, which has always struggled with a lack of funds for running water, mowing and street repairs, can support a new city even if it has the money to move.

If the town is moved and the former Winslow community becomes a cluster of rural homes, it is likely that those who remain will have to build their own septic systems.

Shipman doubted they could afford the cost, although Addink said the rural water system would continue to serve the remaining homes.

In the meantime, Klein said a land purchase agreement for the new city site has been finalized and the donor has committed to covering any shortfall.

Mennonite Church construction crews, well known for their disaster relief efforts, remain interested in helping build the new city, and the local United Way has offered to help, he said.

Completed a schematic map of the new city, showing where streets, lots, and a couple of businesses could be built. According to Klein, the map is very helpful when applying for grants.

And, he added, the new Winslow is getting interest from people who were not displaced by the flood and who see it as a good location for a new home.

Overall, Klein said this is a critical time to decide whether to take action or abandon the idea.

“Either we have to do something from this winter until spring, or it has to end,” he said.

Not the first

Winslow won’t be the first town in Nebraska to move to escape flooding.

Niobrara, located at the confluence of the Niobrara and Missouri Rivers, has moved twice to escape rising waters.

Several floods in the 1880s forced the town to move from a steamboat landing on the Missouri to a “ledge” of land closer to where the Niobrara flows into the larger river.

The second step, taken in the 1970s, was prompted by rising groundwater levels caused by the damming of the Missouri River by the Gavins Point Dam. Ninety percent of townspeople voted in favor of the move in 1971, according to an article in Nebraska History magazine.

According to the article, the move cost approximately $14.5 million, a cost covered by the federal government.

Today that amount, taking inflation into account, would exceed $80 million.

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