BLAIR, Neb. — A man with a graying mustache and blue jeans sat on a stone ledge outside of Dana College, smoking a cigarette, gazing at the ground.
Just to his right, beyond double doors, U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson was meeting with displaced Blair residents. More than 100 currently are living at the former Dana College, paying $150 a month to stay in Holling Hall.
Robert Standish moved to rural Blair 15 years ago.
“I live out in the middle of a cornfield,” Standish said. “At least, I did.”
He couldn't work up the nerve to ask his question: Can the federal government help? He was afraid of the answer. Standish said his financial situation is bleak. He doesn't have flood insurance, and he's afraid the federal government won't be able to help him.
Standish's son, David, 20, walked outside to join him. He lit up a cigarette of his own.
“Yeah, the rooms here, they're small,” said David Standish, who lives at Dana with his parents and brother.
Inside the meeting, Nelson listened to the Blair residents' stories and attempted to give them personal reassurance.
The Standishes' neighbor Les Mullen sat in the back row. He raised his hand. Nelson called on him: “So, if my insurance wasn't active by June 1, then what? I'm on my own?”
People who have flood insurance, Nelson said, can expect help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but people without flood insurance may have a tougher time.
Without flood insurance it will be a “steep hill” to climb to get federal assistance, Nelson said.
Nonetheless, he said, “we're going to do everything we can along the way to find some way to help.”
That's when Standish walked out of the room. He doesn't know who will help him.
“The hardest thing is not knowing,” Standish said. He ticked off a list of unknowns: what his house looks like now, what the total damage is, how long he'll be at Dana.
Nelson said he will be personally communicating with President Barack Obama to ask that a federal disaster declaration come promptly, even though it will be impossible to assess total damage before the water recedes.
While in Blair, Nelson also viewed parts of the community that have been affected by flooding, including the water treatment plant and the Cargill company's complex.
Officials with the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency will draft a letter Monday requesting that the president declare some Nebraska counties as disaster areas, NEMA spokeswoman Cindy Newsham said. By Wednesday, it should be on Gov. Dave Heineman's desk for his signature.
Nelson also addressed many people's anger toward the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Fourteen U.S. senators in Missouri River states, including Nelson and Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Johanns, have requested the corps be evaluated in a congressional hearing.
He said it doesn't make sense to try to assess corps officials now, while they are still dealing with flooding. Nelson said there are likely things the corps did extraordinarily well, as well as some things that were done poorly.
“Postmortem will help us understand what happened, but it's not just about that,” Nelson said. “We're less interested in hanging people out to dry. We're far more interested in getting a true assessment so that we can be sure that it doesn't happen again.”
Contact the writer: 402-444-1084, ellen.hirst@owh.com
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