Roads less traveled get workout

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BLAIR, Neb. — A stiff, plastic-coated highway map of Nebraska is getting a workout these days at the Petro Mart near the Missouri River on U.S. 30.

Travelers and long-haul truckers are detouring in record numbers through this river town north of Omaha in search of a dry route to parts north and south.

With Interstate 29 on the Iowa side of the river closed between Loveland and Council Bluffs and farther south between Hamburg, Iowa, and Rockport, Mo., — and with a handful of river bridges closed — motorists are turning onto roads less traveled in Nebraska and Iowa.

“I have that map ready,” said store manager Jody Penry on Friday.

“That's the only way to tell which way to go. But which way do you tell them to go?”

While dialing up a new detour seems to be a daily occurrence, towns like Blair, Tekamah and Falls City in Nebraska and Shenandoah, Clarinda and Honey Creek in Iowa are seeing a burst of new traffic and increased business, some at the expense of businesses where roads are closed.

At a Petro Mart/Junction Cafe at the I-29 interchange in Missouri Valley, Iowa, — just across the river from Blair — business is down 30 to 40 percent because tourists have detoured off the Interstate, said manager David Schlorff.

Yet a few miles down the road near his home in Honey Creek, Iowa, Schlorff said, traffic is bumper to bumper at times on Iowa Highway 183, which has become a popular detour to Council Bluffs from Missouri Valley.

Much of that traffic involves trucks carrying gravel and sand to fill “trap bags” used to make temporary levees on U.S. 30 and elsewhere.

In Clarinda, Iowa, on U.S. 71 — another popular detour route — Pizza Hut manager Barb Stutzman said her employees are going out of their way to cater to an increased number of tourists detouring off I-29.

“People are very frustrated and anxious because it's a big delay,” Stutzman said. “So we need to be extra-special kind.”

At the Blair Petro Mart, receipts are up 50 percent. Casey's General Store in Falls City near the Kansas border reported a big increase in tourists and truckers.

In northeast Nebraska, business has tripled at the Cubby's food mart in Tekamah, which sits on U.S. 75, a popular detour.

The closure of the Missouri River bridge at Decatur, and the temporary closure of the bridge at Blair — both this week — increased the stream of vehicles with South Dakota, North Dakota, Kansas, Minnesota and other out-of-state plates on both U.S. 75 and 77.

In Tekamah, crossing the main road through the town of 1,736 is now a hazardous, big-city-style adventure.

“In a small town, you can usually trot right out there,” Renee Osmera said from the kitchen of her business, Rumor's Grill & Bar, on U.S. 75. “It's like a parade now. A quick trip to the store isn't a quick trip to the store anymore.”

The increased traffic and gas sales have helped keep gas prices down, according to Cubby's manager Tarie Surls in Tekamah.

The U.S. 30 Missouri River bridge at Blair appeared to be the pinch point for detouring traffic on Friday.

The bridge had been closed the previous two days so that crews could install flood barriers along U.S. 30 on the Iowa side.

It reopened Friday morning and was scheduled to remain open until Tuesday morning, when it will close again for more barrier installation.

The flow of rumbling semis, pickups and cars through Blair picked up measurably on Friday morning.

“I'm glad to see the flood's not stopping everything,” said Brandon Vacek while he sacked sweet corn at a vegetable/melon stand along the highway.

Blair City Administrator Rod Storm estimated that traffic has doubled through his community because of flood detours.

There have been some complaints from the newcomers about the timing of stoplights through Blair, Storm said, but no additional traffic accidents or incidents.

He said the greatest traffic danger arising from the flooding has been the flight of deer from swamped wooded areas along the Missouri onto highways that parallel it.

“You don't make a trip to Omaha in the dark without seeing a bunch of deer,” Storm said.

Maj. Russ Stanczyk of the Nebraska State Patrol said the increased closing of bridges and roads because of the flooding is pushing more traffic onto fewer and fewer roads.

“The higher the water gets, the busier we get,” said Sheila Seager, manager of the Casey's General Store in Falls City.

Stanczyk said additional patrols have been requested in the area of Winnebago, Neb., and Thurston County because of the additional traffic on U.S. 77 and 75. But he said he is not aware of major accidents caused by the rerouted travelers and truckers.

Even so, the detours have brought headaches for motorists.

As she walked two puppies in the grass at Cubby's in Tekamah, Cynthia Dempewolf of Sabetha, Kan., said her normal six-hour drive to pick up puppies in Slaton, Minn., took an extra 90 minutes because she had to drive through small towns in Nebraska rather than the stoplight-free I-29.

Road construction delays on U.S. 77 between Winside and Uehling forced her to take U.S. 75 on the way back in hopes of a quicker drive. But she hit a detour at Macy instead.

“It's kind of dangerous,” Dempewolf said.

The backup of cars and trucks on U.S. 77 near Logan View High School stretched nearly a mile as they waited for a pilot car to guide them around a paving crew.

At the Petro Mart in Blair, customers joked about “backyard bowfishing” for carp in the flooded bottomlands.

But the flooding's more serious side was apparent nearby at the former Dana College, where 107 people from both sides of the Missouri had taken refuge in a former dormitory due to water in their homes.

Penry, the Petro Mart manager, said it's nice to see new faces and more business at her store.

“But I'd rather have it under different circumstances,” she said.

Contact the writer: 402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com

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