Commercial garden falls prey to flood

Doug Lau wades through water to retrieve pallets of dried gourds, grown at his wife's commercial garden -- Nana's Garden -- on the south side of Highway 6&34. "It's a repeat of last year," Doug said, except that he and Deb got less of a warning this year. About 7:30 a.m., Deb, Doug and Deb's son, Travis Davis, discovered water rising quickly around their house. The three gathered up Deb and Doug's three sleepy granddaughters, the family dogs and two tractors and drove through rising, rushing water to high ground. "We were standing out by the highway by 8," Travis said. That's where they spent most of the day, watching the water receded. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette) [Click to enlarge]

Deb Lau of Nana's Garden said this morning that a University of Nebraska crop specialist has strongly recommended that she mow off her garden and till under all the produce. Through tears, Deb said, "Because the water washed over pastures to the west, there's a possibility of E. coli and salmonella bacteria. I can't take the chance of making someone sick."

Rain that reportedly overflowed a 7-inch rain gauge broke through an earthen NRD dam on the county line about 11:45 a.m., sending water south quicker than normal.

Bob Merrigan, assistant manager of the Middle Republican Natural Resources District, said this morning that heavy rains and dammed-up water cut a 10-foot-wide hole in a canyon dam on the Hitchcock and Hayes county line on Old Highway 17 north of Culbertson.

"The hole let out the water behind the dam faster than usual, but it wasn't a wall of water, no tremendous surge of water."

The water in the dam was probably 15 to 20 feet deep, Merrigan said, and the hole in the dam was not cut clear to the bottom; water was slowly draining Sunday, he said.

Merrigan said that engineers will look at the dam to determine why it failed, and the extent of damage.

Deb Lau's commercial garden, Nana's Garden, was underwater for the second year in a row. "It looks just like it did last year. It's a repeat of last year," said Deb's husband, Doug. The garden was flooded in 2007, early in the growing season, after torrential rain fell north of Highway 6&34.

Only about one inch of rain fell at the Laus' location a mile west of Culbertson, so Doug said they weren't expecting trouble. They and Deb's son, Travis Davis, discovered rising water outside the backdoor about 7-7:30 a.m. They gathered up Deb and Doug's sleepy granddaughters -- Sarah, 9, Sydnie, 6, and Sofie, 1 -- the dogs, two tractors and drove to high ground on the highway.

"We grabbed the girls and left," Deb said. Sarah admitted, "I was shaking a little." Sydnie said, "I was shakin' a lot."

"Tiger's experienced," Doug said, pointing to the large rock that Sarah (aka "Tiger") placed at high water on the gravel driveway near the highway. Sarah and Sydnie remember their grandparents' flood in 2007.

"I think it's quit coming up," Doug said about 8:30 a.m.

The Laus were optimistic Saturday that they would be back in their home and in the garden soon, until the phone call from the University representative.

"I'm just sick about this," Deb said this morning, fighting tears. "The plants are just loaded with vegetables. But the flood water covered half the tomatoes and all the vine crops."

Sunday, after the water receded and the Laus could return to their house, Deb said, she thought the garden looked wonderful considering its over-watering. "But it's the unseen bacteria that's the problem," she said.

Plants were just newly in the ground last year when flood waters inundated the garden. "There was no produce on the plants," Deb said, "so there was no risk of E. coli or salmonella."

Washing the produce with soap and water after harvest won't kill the bacteria, Deb said the University representative told her.

Deb is upset, but philosophical. "These are the cards we're dealt," she said. "I'll cry some tears, we'll put on our boots, roll up our sleeves," and, as Doug said Saturday, "hope for a breeze."

The Laus returned to their home Sunday. "The house is okay," Deb said this morning. "We'll have to work on the garden shed again ... the damage is to the garden."

"We've got a lot of work to do. We'll start over next year," Deb said.

Jeremy Martin, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Goodland, Kan., blamed the heavy rains on a thunderstorm that regenerated over the same area and didn't move on.

"Usually, a thunderstorm moves 15-20 miles an hour. It rains and moves on," he said. "This one wasn't moving."

Martin said his office's reports indicate at least seven inches of rain over several hours on the Hayes and Hitchcock county lines north of Culbertson.

The Bureau of Reclamation office in McCook reported these rainfall amounts: McCook, 1.88 inches of rain (although some reports are of up to 2.75); Swanson Dam, 1.13; Harry Strunk Lake, .54; Norton, 1.5; and Enders, .02.

NeRain (a division of the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources) issued these rainfall amounts for Friday through this morning combined:

McCook, 3.68; Hayes Center (6.2 miles east/ southeast), 3.44; Indianola (2.2 northwest), 2.87; Bartley (6 south/southeast), 2.43; Palisade (6.1 east/ southeast), 2.43; Cambridge (3.7 west/northwest) .78; Stratton (7.9 north/ northwest), .50.