TITAN MACHINERY | Fremont, NE
When the city of Fremont, Nebraska, experienced severe flooding on March 15, the town became an “island” for three days, shut off from any road in or out. The town sits between the Platte River to the south and the Elkhorn River to the north and both rivers over- flowed their banks.
“It was a very quick moving situation that turned into something I couldn’t have imagined when I sent people home from work on Friday,” said Scott Raber, area sales manager, Titan Machinery.
“Several of our customers are hav- ing a very difficult time,” he added. “They’ve lost their stored grain, live- stock, facilities and more.” According to Raber, some farmers have 250 acres of farmland under two to three feet of sand. “Several have rented scrapers or earthmoving equipment just to get the sand moved off their fields. I expect there’s going to be quite a bit of land unable to be farmed for some time to come.”
Luckily, the facilities at Titan Machin- ery were spared. Raber opened the dealership for business as soon as em- ployees were able to make it into town. “We stayed open as much as we could to make our equipment available to the city, contractors, local businesses and farmers in need.”
Raber feels it’s going to be a long re- covery effort, especially when it comes to infrastructure. “While most major thoroughfares have opened back up, there are still a lot of county roads and bridges that remain blocked-off,” he said. “As a result, we’ve had to rethink our routes for getting trucks around.” He stated that a lot of customers have taken matters into their own hands to get gravel roads back in shape for travel.
“In the end, the community of Fremont pulled together really well,” said Raber. “Local people and businesses put forth a strong effort.”
18 | The Retailer Magazine | May/June
KAYTON INTERNATIONAL | Albion, NE
While the town of Albion, Nebraska, didn’t experience major flooding, waters did take out several roads and bridges in the area. “The railroad tracks coming out of Albion were damaged so the Ethanol Plant had to shut down,” said Tim Kayton, owner, Kayton Interna- tional. “Cargill also shortened its hours of operation since they couldn’t get rid of the corn. It’s been tough.”
Several dealership employees weren’t able to make it to work due to road closures. “I’ve heard of people having to drive 50-60 miles to get to work at a business located just five miles out- side of town,” said Kayton.
Farmers also depend on these roads to get to their fields. “One of my cus- tomers farms on two parcels located just three miles apart. Now they have to drive 30 miles to get from one parcel to the other. It’s a logistical night- mare,” said Kayton. “Some farmers lost upwards of 40 calves and 10 cows and others had grain bins in lower areas that took on water. These are areas where we’ve never seen water before.”
He added, “Such a large area flooded at once that the water simply had no place to go. It brought three to five feet of water rolling across a lot of farms, trashing and tearing out banks, ruining irrigation pipe, and more. No one around here has turned a wheel yet. I don’t know when it will happen.”
Neighboring towns were hit much worse. “St. Edward had two to three feet of water in every business,” said Kayton.
Flooding also tore the Twin River Public School District in two, leaving some students and staff members facing a 75 minute trip to school (one way). The district is now teaching displaced students via video conference on laptops.
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