Accounts of ‘44’s Record Flood

In the summer of 1944, a devastating flood had occurred in Scribner, Nebraska. It is on record to be one of the worst floods in Nebraska. While the death toll was very low, both the damage and the height the waters reached were astonishing. There were many accounts given by the citizens who experienced the flood firsthand.
           
Jim Ebel says that he was close to 10 years old when the flood occurred. He claims that the most damage came from the creek, which he believes dumped water into the river and caused it to overflow. When the waters reached the town, it filled the basements of homes in a rather short time.
           
It was also reported that all businesses on Main Street were flooded and damaged because of the water. Due to the many machines it owned, the Meat Market was one of the first business to be cleaned up after the flood.
           
After viewing the mud on the town buildings, the water is estimated to have gotten as high as 10-12 feet high. The flood also affected the highway. The heavy mud from the flood made it impossible to stand on the highway, let alone drive on it. The water reportedly took bundles of fence posts from around town and brought them all the way to the bridge. According to Lee Burkink, many hogs, cattle, dogs and even horses were found floating in the water.
           
The conditions of the flood had cause a few town folk to lose their lives. Burkink’s grandfather, Shultz, was moving his livestock to higher ground and lost his life due to a heart attack.
           
​The rain that caused the flood had stopped around June 11th and the flood waters had just barely receded the next day. The major messes were, for the most part, dealt with in just a few days after the flood. However, all nearby homes were flooded and the basements in the homes were filled with water. In all, the entire town took almost the whole summer to clean.

Jim Ebel

Aaron Peters Memory of the Flood of 1944

​The flood of 1944 started out with a thunderstorm. The rain just kept coming and coming, until the rivers and creeks could not hold anymore and the town would start to flood. The flood lasted about four days until the water receded completely.
           
Scribner received about ten feet of water that rushed throughout the town. All of the water came from the Maple Creek, Silver Creek and the Elkhorn River.

Aaron Peters, the son of Leo and Louise Peters remembers the Scribner Flood of 1944. Aaron was about eighteen years old when it happened. Peters and his family did not live in town and, therefore, were not affected by the flood.
Peters and his family watched the flood from the top of a hill, to the south of Scribner by the baseball and softball fields. All they could see was a flooded Scribner. The water was everywhere!

“I remember seeing a hog house and trees floating in the water. Some of the houses also moved,” Peters said.
After the flood waters receded, Peters remembers seeing lots of mud, broken lumber and roads washed away. Many crops were destroyed as well. This flood took about a month to completely clean up.

“I remember hearing about Howard Schafer being stuck in a tree in his pasture. He was riding his horse when the water kept rising, so Howard climbed into a tree and the water washed away his horse,” Peters said. He remembers that Schafer claimed to have seen about twelve feet of water coming through the valley.

Ninety percent of the houses had water in their basements and caused damage to the houses. If the water did not run into the basement, it seeped through the windows. Bridges were also damaged from the water.

​All farms in Scribner lost their livestock. However, Peters remembers a pig roaming the yard of his grandparents’ house in town because it was on higher ground.

​Lee's Interview