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Nebraska farmer trying to save others killed in flooding

By Associated Press
Published March 16, 2019 4:47pm ET
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Nebraska farmer trying to save others killed in flooding
Tom Wilke, center, his son Chad, right, and Nick Kenny, load a boat out of the swollen waters of the North Fork of the Elkhorn River after checking on the Witke's flooded property, in Norfolk, Neb., Friday, March 15, 2019. Heavy rain falling atop deeply frozen ground has prompted evacuations along swollen rivers in Wisconsin, Nebraska and other Midwestern states. Thousands of people have been urged to evacuate along eastern Nebraska rivers as a massive late-winter storm has pushed streams and rivers out of their banks throughout the Midwest. | (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — At least one person has died and at least two others are missing in floodwaters that have swamped towns and farmland, washed out roads and bridges, and drowned livestock in Nebraska in the wake of a late-winter storm that overwhelmed rivers and creeks with rain and snowmelt.

The family of 50-year-old James Wilke, of Columbus, Neb., says he was driving his tractor to rescue stranded motorists on a county road cut off by flooding Thursday when a bridge he was crossing collapsed. His cousin, Paul Wilke, told the Columbus Telegram that James Wilke’s body was found downstream. Gass Haney Funeral Home confirmed James Wilke’s death.

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Tag:

Natural Disasters Nebraska Weather