The 1935 Republican River Flood (Disaster) by Hayden Joy

Author:Hayden, Joy [Hayden, Joy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2015-04-27T04:00:00+00:00

Photo showing the depth of the water at the peak of the flood in McCook. Museum of the High Plains .

The McCook Power Plant before the flood. Museum of the High Plains .

Various people, marooned in McCook when the flood and tornado struck, photographed the drama unfolding before them. They took pictures of the McCook Power Plant, of the standpipe and of bridges and other places as the destruction took place. They witnessed the death of hundreds of helpless cattle and hogs carried away by the swirling water. The animals died as the river dashed them against trees and lashed them with debris.

James Jaquet, general manager of the Nebraska Light and Power Company of McCook, provided a written account of the flood that preserved the tale of heroism and courage exhibited by the workers of the plant and the town’s citizens.

The plant, located south of town near present-day Barnett Park, began its life as a flour mill in the early days of settlement in the community. As time passed, workers converted the mill to provide electricity and pump water for the community.

At the time of the flood, the updated structure, a fine, strong building, boasted a steel-framed roof with three sixteen-foot-tall bay doors. The building housed six diesel engines ranging in size from two hundred to nine hundred horsepower, making it one of the largest plants in Nebraska. These engines connected to generators, which produced electricity for the city. Outside the plant, a large water tower held water pumped for city use from wells located across the river. A line extended from the wells to the pump located at the plant.

The men at the plant that morning were familiar with spring flooding on the Republican and took in stride the rising water that had occurred earlier in the month. Each year when the river flooded, workers at the plant filled sandbags to build a wall around the bay doors to prevent water from entering the plant. When the water receded, workers removed the handmade dike and emptied the bags. In the past, their dikes always held, and they removed them when the danger passed. During the slight flooding near the plant a few days before May 31, 1935, a dike of bags had been erected around the plant, and as always, workers emptied them when the danger passed.

At about 4:00 a.m. on the morning of May 31, the operator on duty noticed water beginning to run in the ditch outside the plant. He sent word for additional employees to report to the plant. They began their accustomed task of filling sacks with sand and cinders. A rail car from the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, partially full of cinders, the remains of those used a few days earlier to aid in filling the bags, still stood next to the building. Workers already at work quickly put the cinders to use, filling new bags. Additional day workers came to help. By 5:00 a.m., about twelve to fifteen men were working to build a wall of bags around the plant.

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