Editor's Note:
December naturally has us thinking back over the year that was, including the stories we've created. So, we've again asked DTN/Progressive Farmer writers to think back on their year and choose a favorite story from the archive. They range from hard-hitting investigative journalism and national scoops to farm family features and fun discoveries made while traveling U.S. farm country. We hope you enjoy our writers' favorites, with today's story by DTN Staff Reporter Russ Quinn.
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OMAHA (DTN) -- For all of us who lived through the COVID-19 pandemic, March 2020 will always be associated with the beginning of the worldwide pandemic. But do you remember what happened a year before this?
If you can't, you are probably in the majority who forgot the weather event that happened the year before COVID -- in March of 2019 -- the bomb cyclone.
After much consideration, I selected my March 12 article commemorating the fourth anniversary of the 2019 bomb cyclone, which hit parts of five Midwestern states, as my favorite article of 2023. Nebraska, my lifelong home, was hit with the most damage from the weather event.
Personally, I had never heard this weather term before a bomb cyclone hit nearly all of Nebraska and parts of South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri in 2019. Nebraska was hit directly with much snow and rain which caused massive flooding. This in turn damaged and destroyed bridges and highways all over the Cornhusker State.
My favorite article I wrote in 2023 was a look back to the bomb cyclone on the fourth anniversary of the weather event. See the story at: https://www.dtnpf.com/…. (You can also find in that story links to some of the stories DTN did back in the first few weeks of the event in 2019.)
After being an ag reporter for a quarter century, I thought I had covered almost every agriculture-related story possible. I had written about devastating weather negatively affecting agriculture before, but this time it was completely different when it was happening in my lifelong home area.
Where I live in eastern Nebraska, we are in the hills so we were not directly affected by the flooding. However, we did know people who lived in lower-lying areas who were not so lucky.
What ended up affecting the region long-term was the many highways, roads and bridges that were closed for months afterward. A quick 20-minute drive for us to Fremont, Nebraska, where my mother-in-law lives, became a trek that doubled both the miles and time to get there.
I suppose it is a bit strange for me to select my favorite article of the year to be about such a negative situation. However, I do think it is important to remember historical events, good and bad.
THE SILVER LINING
The silver lining to this horrible event is people stepped up to save both lives and property.
Regular people became heroes in the days after the bomb cyclone happened. Small-town volunteer firefighters saved many people stranded in their homes. The Nebraska National Guard dropped hay to stranded cattle across the state, the first time this action was taken since the devastating blizzard of 1949.
The reason many of us choose to live in these smaller communities is because of the sense of togetherness we feel being part of these areas. Everyone pulled together and made sure those who were affected by this extreme weather event and its long-term impact were taken care of.
One of the things I will always remember is the large amount of donated water, canned food and other supplies that were collected at my kids' school in Arlington, Nebraska. It seemed like everyone in the community brought something to the school to be distributed to those in need after the severe flooding.
This is something that should always be remembered.
Russ Quinn can be reached at Russ.Quinn@dtn.com
Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @RussQuinnDTN
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