Floods shaped downtown Platte Center

March 22--PLATTE CENTER -- Residents of Platte Center look anxiously to the skies when spring storm clouds gather, knowing their community located near two area creeks will always feel the threat of flooding if rains come too fast.

They have experience with the menace posed by heavy upstream rains rushing down Elm and Shell creeks and flooding their homes and businesses.

Platte Center, named because of its central location in Platte County, experienced the mother of all floods in June 1990 when severe thunderstorms dumped heavy rains in the area.

The storms sent high waters rushing down Elm Creek, runs through the community's downtown business district, chasing residents out of their homes and businesses. In the aftermath of the flooding, residents got sick from working in the floodwaters, which were tainted with bacteria and chemicals from the runoff from farm and livestock operations.

"1990 was the flood that really changed things," said Mark Borchers, current chairman of the Platte Center Village Board.

The 1990 storm changed the landscape of the downtown business district along Fourth Street.

The cash registers at Bruckner Grocery Store, a backbone of the downtown for more than a century, never rang again after floodwaters left a high-water mark 6 feet up the outside walls of the store. The muddy, debris-laden waters climbed at least 4 feet high inside the store.

"It's hard enough for a small town to support a grocery store (without that kind of threat from Mother Nature)," Borchers said. Nowadays, he said, some local residents make the drive to Columbus, sometimes two or three times a day, to run errands.

The Polish Pub, which according to the date of 1912 drawn into the concrete above the front door, has weathered storms for more than 100 years. The Fourth Street bar reopened after the 1990 flood and remains a mainstay of downtown to this day.

Betty Pilakowski didn't own the Polish Pub in 1990, but she can easily recall the flooding of eight years ago. The 72-year-old bar owner said floodwaters filled the business's basement, but only a little muddy water ran under the front door.

"1990 was the big one," said Pilakowski, who bought the bar 20 years ago. When the bar made the switch from propane heating, she said a new furnace was purposefully mounted on the ceiling of the basement to minimize the damage from another flood.

"We put it that way so the water couldn't get to it," she said.

A second bar in the downtown area wasn't so lucky, closing its doors for good when floodwaters receded in 1990. Goering Construction, perhaps due to the retirement of the business' principals as much as flood damage, went out of business, too. Two barbershops are also gone.

Schumacher Irrigation Inc., which marks 60 years in business this year, felt the wrath of the 1990 storm and made some changes to temper building damages from future floods. The business build a brick facade in the front of its Fourth Street office and wooden barricades outside warehouses to protect against the force of high waters and creeping mud.

"We're hoping that will help in the future," said Mark Schumacher, co-owner of the irrigation equipment company. High waters from prior floods left 4 inches of silt in the company's offices, forcing the replacement of drywall, wiring and insulation, and pushed in the doors of warehouses.

The family owners of the business have discussed shifting locations to higher ground, but decided to remain downtown.

There's the threat of flooding, but who's to say Mother Nature's fury wouldn't come in the form of a tornado next time, Schumacher said.

Meanwhile, other businesses have sprung up in the 131-year-old community, which boasted a population of 336 as of the 2010 federal census.

J & L General Store, a mini-mart/convenience store on Fourth Street, opened for business. Bank of the Valley has a new building, an insurance office occupies the old bank building, and Grubaugh Machine, Central Valley Ag and a trucking company have offices there.

It would be 18 years until another severe late-spring storm struck the community.

In 2008, residents had only minutes to escape their homes when quickly rising floodwaters along Elm and Shell creeks again flooded the community's downtown area.

The late-May rains topped Elm Creek's banks downtown, spilling over the bridge and flooding streets in several feet of water.

Flooding along Shell Creek closed U.S. Highway 81 from 83rd Street north of Columbus to the Platte Center spur and a backed-up Elm Creek had nowhere else to go. Storm debris snagged on the railroad bridge and downtown bridge.

Though some homes and businesses experienced major damage, including a collapsed wall in one house, there were no reported injuries. An estimated 10 businesses and 50 to 70 homes were damaged.

Then-Gov. Dave Heineman declared a state of emergency at the time of the flooding, which allowed access to state and federal resources for storm cleanup.

Platte Center made the funding requests to federal and state emergency management agencies in the late summer of 2008.

The village received more than $40,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and $4,775 from the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency to make repairs to Elmwood Park, George Hoadley Park and various streets.

The 2008 flood wasn't nearly as bad as the earlier 1990 flooding, Borchers remembered. The village chairman's grandmother, in her 80s and living south of downtown in 1990, lost her home when 2 feet of gripping mud was left inside the residence by receding floodwaters.

"A lot of people bounced back, but some didn't," he said.

The community received another calling card from heavy spring rains in 2010.

Storm watchers kept their eyes peeled for rising waters along Elm Creek and volunteers readied sandbags, but improvements that had been made along the slopes of the waterway and increasingly popular no-till farming practices upstream played a pivotal role in slowing rushing waters that eroded soil and picked up debris along the way.

The village and local natural resources district split the costs of the improvements that made the grade of the creek slopes gentler, allowing for more water to stay inside the banks.

"We just had to guesstimate the depth and speed of the rising water (in 2010)," said Borchers, adding that early evacuation of residents is the top priority when flood fears climb. "We get people out of their homes at the slightest threat."

Some water also topped the lip of Elm Creek, which varies from 12 to 20 feet from the creek bed to street level, six years ago, but it just ran down the downtown gutters and into the storm drains.

"About 15 homes were threatened," Borchers said.

Community improvements are continuing this year.

The village has been embarked on a multiyear effort to replace a century-old water system's outmoded clay pipes with plastic piping.

"We're hoping the new, heavy plastic pipes will last another 100 years," said Borchers, adding that the community installed a new main line in town and has an ongoing process of replacing smaller offshoot piping as repairs are needed.

Village officials also plan one more project this summer aimed at checking future Elm Creek flooding. The $25,000 project calls for improving a curve in the creek south of the downtown area.

It's intended to allow high water to drain south away from the community faster, Borchers said. "It will improve safety."

The village chairman said there is also some potential new housing development on the horizon in the north-central part of town near the K-6 Platte Center Elementary School.

A retired area farmer, Rod Hassebrook, is in the beginning phases of developing a subdivision with the possibility of 25 to 30 homes.

"He's a good community-minded person," Borchers said.

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