Pilots bail out Nebraska city cut off by floodwaters
A Nebraska city walled off by massive flooding is getting a big lift from private pilots who are offering free flights to shuttle stranded residents to and from their hometown.
Flooding from the Platte River and other waterways is so bad that just one highway lane into Fremont remained uncovered, authorities said Monday.
Emergency responders restricted access for safety reasons, leaving residents in the city of 26,000 stuck on an island in the middle of Nebraska farm country, about 65 kilometres northwest of Omaha.
The flooding in Fremont came as communities in several U.S. Midwestern states grapple with swollen rivers and breached or overtopped levees following heavy rain and snowmelt.
After a weekend with no road access to the outside world, officials in Fremont said they still don’t know when any will reopen.
The flights were a godsend for Sue Ankersen, 56, who lives in the city but wasn’t able to return home after babysitting her granddaughter in Omaha on Friday.
Ankersen said she had never flown in a small plane before, but heard about the flights from her daughter and worked up the courage to go because she was homesick and wanted to volunteer to help others.
“I call them angels of the sky,” she said. “I’m just so thankful for these guys doing this.”