Communities in Nebraska and Iowa are affected by flood damage. Here's what you need to know Saturday | Nebraska

The houses are under water and the roads impassable. Displaced persons fled to hospitals, schools and other community buildings.

Residents of the area were evacuated when dikes broke or rivers overflowed.

Full or partial evacuations were conducted in at least 31 communities in Nebraska, including Cedar Rapids, Beemer, Plattsmouth, Valley and West Point.

Columbus (the 10th largest city in the state) only had a black path to get in or out. And after Douglas County declared Q Street closed, which made Valley inaccessible by road (Valmont factory headquarters, evacuated as a precaution). In a sign of hope, an evacuation order was raised in the eighth largest county of Norfolk, allowing residents to return home and in their businesses.

Rita Argintean was one of many residents of a Valley Assisted Living Center who was preparing to evacuate.

Aged 84, he had survived two previous floods in Valley, but did not linger until the third. "I hate them," she says. "It's horrible."

Governor Ricketts has called the floods the worst of the last 50 years.

Eastern Nebraska is probably just days away from river levels, which will allow people to breathe better, said David Pearson, hydrologist of the National Weather Service.

Even though the Elkhorn River was cresting on Friday and was starting to fall, and even though the Platte seemed to be on the peak, the danger did not falter, he said.

"The situation remains dangerous and will remain so until we find a significant decline," he said. "It's not like a river that falls into a normal flood. It's like going from extreme to extreme normal.

However, there is still some optimism, namely a decrease in the amount of ice in the Platte. "It's much better," he said.

When the Platte rejects massive amounts of water in the Missouri River, it pushed this river to record levels.

"The dikes are clear, this is happening already," he said. "The question is not whether they will exceed the limits.The situation will only worsen."

To check the current flood conditions, click here. To see a raw video and photos of the massive flood around the state, click here.

Communities north of Ashland were encouraged to evacuate Friday night after water began to exceed taxes, although there was no immediate threat.

The Ashland Fire Department reported that water was flowing over royalty near the communities of Wann and Big Sandy.

"We are organizing a highly recommended evacuation to these areas to be proactive," the ministry wrote on Facebook.

Water levels in nearby Thomas Lakes fluctuated during the day Friday but did not increase in the last hours of Friday.

Access to the communities remained open late Friday.

By midnight Friday, crews had stopped monitoring water levels for rest.

Douglas County tweeted a good news on Friday: "Here are the numbers from today's rescue at 9:40 pm These numbers will increase and we can not thank our unified command and first responders for their efforts amazing. "

The numbers: 112 adults, five children, 53 dogs, five cats, a rabbit, two birds and two hamsters.

The American Red Cross is collaborating with 10 shelter centers located in Nebraska and southwestern Iowa to help displaced people from their homes due to floods.

United Methodist Church of Salem, 14955 Somerset Avenue in Council Bluffs; Calgary Baptist Church in Glenwood, Iowa, Rand Community Center, Missouri Valley, Iowa; The Central East Department of Health and the Columbus Federated Church, both located in Columbus, Nebraska; Elkhorn Middle School in Elkhorn; First Lutheran Church and Lutheran Trinitarian Church, both located in Fremont; Pierce High School in Pierce, Nebraska; and Wood River High School in Wood River, Nebraska.

The Red Cross recommends that evacuees bring necessities, including prescriptions and emergency medications; foods for unusual dietary needs; a piece of identification indicating residence in an affected area and important personal documents; change of clothes, pillows, blankets, hygiene products and comfort articles; supplies for infants and children, such as diapers, formula and toys; and necessary items for the elderly or disabled.

Several animals from the Gifford farm in Bellevue were not found Friday afternoon after the floodwaters fell on the outdoor training center located east of the Fontenelle Forest. The death of the animals has not been confirmed, according to Kelly Taylor, head of the farm office. Some employees hope that the animals will be found higher or sink deeper into the nearby forest, but it is possible that they perished in the waters.

The rapid rise in the level of rivers on Friday was a source of concern for Sarpy County, which was declared under emergency conditions on Wednesday. The Sarpy County Sheriff's Office has urged residents of the Missouri and Platte Rivers to evacuate their homes. The evacuation area was about 2,600 people.

Residents living around Lake Waconda, a private lake just off the Missouri River near Union, Nebraska, were invited to evacuate, said Sandy Weyers, Emergency Management Director for Cass County. .

Offutt's only runway was closed until 1 pm Tuesday, according to a notice to airmen published by the Federal Aviation Administration. In addition, for the second time in four years, the Ashland Guard camp, located on the banks of the Platte River, east of Ashland, was submerged by floodwaters.

The national meteorological service issued the warning on Friday morning and called on residents to immediately evacuate the area, indicating that sudden floods were imminent.

The Office of the National Meteorological Service in Valley, which provided essential information on the evolution of the flood situation, was itself carrying out an evacuation. The Weather Services Office in Hastings, Nebraska, took over.

Authorities suspect an ice jam somewhere would have blocked the river, said meteorologist Taylor Nicolaisen.

Friday morning rises bring the river level to 21.55 feet. The major flood stage is considered 21 feet. The river level was to reach 24 feet later in the day.

The mayor of Omaha, Jean Stothert, said Friday that she had signed a declaration of local disaster because of the damage caused by the floods, the strong winds and the torrential rains since March 11, in the evening. 39, hope to obtain emergency funds "from all available sources".

The floods also brought the city of Omaha to shut down the Papillion Creek sewage treatment plant on Friday morning.

When the plant will be closed, the sewage will go into the river without being treated. On average, the plant processes 65 million gallons of wastewater a day.

People should avoid going to the Missouri River near and downstream of Papillion Creek.

The other wastewater treatment plan of the city remains open.

"It is probably damage caused by the most widespread floods in the last fifty years," he said at a press conference held Friday morning at the airport. Norfolk. "Even when we were away from the water system, we saw that the fields were very saturated."

Ricketts visited the Platte and Loup rivers by helicopter with the Nebraska National Guard and, after a brief stopover in Norfolk, planned to monitor the Elkhorn River.

The Nebraska Public Power District is about to shut down Cooper's nuclear plant as the Missouri River approaches a critical 45.5-foot mark. Friday afternoon, the river was nearly 45 feet deep near Brownville.

If the plant goes out, spokesman Mark Becker said he did not foresee any damage to the nuclear components of the facility.

The Missouri River pierced a dike between Offutt Air Base and Plattsmouth Air Force Base near Harlan Lewis Road and La Platte.

Sarpy County Sheriff's deputies noted that the Platte River was coming out of its north shore and was forcing water on Cottonwood Road in Villa Springs, southeast of Springfield.

Sarpy County Sheriff Jeff Davis urged residents of the Missouri and Platte Rivers to immediately evacuate their places to avoid being trapped. The release of a Gavins Point Dam and floods in central Nebraska are affecting water levels in Sarpy County.

Officials said people living in an area bordering these rivers might think that water may not reach them. However, water can and has been washed on the surrounding roads, preventing the entry and exit of living spaces.

US Highway 275 between Omaha and Fremont is closed, according to the Nebraska State Patrol. US Highway 77 to the north and south of the city is closed, as is American Highway 30 to the west and east of the city, said Lottie Mitchell, spokesman for the city .

These closures remained in effect on Friday night.

The southwestern part of the city is still subject to a voluntary evacuation, Mitchell said, because the nearby dikes have not yet been drilled.

Also on Friday, Dodge County officials urged residents of North Bend, about 15 km west of Fremont, to evacuate.

Officials in Norfolk heaved a sigh of relief on Friday after the water level dropped several feet in one night, allowing nearly a third of the city to return home and their businesses.

The person who disappeared during the flood in Norfolk on Thursday is still missing. Officials said the research was ongoing.

The floodwaters were retreating in Columbus on Friday afternoon. The Platte County Emergency Officer, Tim Hofbauer, said the water had dropped about a foot and a lot further upstream from the Wolf River.

Hofbauer said that several bridges on Shell Creek had failed and that there was no direct route to Columbus Friday afternoon.

A few rivers reached record levels overnight, while meteorologists from the National Meteorological Service warn that the water level will continue to rise for several days.

According to weather forecaster Dave Eastlack, no additional moisture is expected in the next few days that would increase totals, except for a low probability of snow Monday night.

"We're probably not going to see a kind of setback before half or the end of next week," he said.

Eastlack emphasized that motorists should not cross the water for their own safety and not to hinder the resources of first responders.

The Corps of US Army Engineers expects the Missouri River in Omaha to peak at 33.7 feet by Sunday, but Omaha City officials have said that the river should not compromise the 13 miles of lift that she controls.

The pedestrian walkway Bob Kerrey is closed due to the flooding of the Council Bluffs side.

In the Missouri Valley, in Iowa, two residents were taken to the local hospital in critical condition after being exposed to icy water during rescue operations.

Also on Thursday, a volunteer firefighter assigned to a rescue in the Waterloo region developed hypothermia after having a hole in his suit.

At Shell Creek, near Columbus, a farmer drove a tractor to help a motorist stuck in floodwater, who was washed away and died, said Bryan Tuma, deputy director of the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency.

The farmer was later identified as Columbus farmer James Wilke. When he learned that the flood of water had blocked a motorist on a nearby country road early Thursday, he set fire to his tractor and went to help despite the wind and rain.

Guided by volunteer first responders, Wilke started on Monastery Road and on the bridge that spans Shell Creek.

But the bridge collapsed under the tractor's weight, dragging the 50-year-old into the flooded stream. After a frantic search of the neighbors, his body was found downstream about nine hours later, near his own farm.

Two boats with five firefighters and two drivers capsized Thursday night while they were trying to rescue people in Dodge County near the Elkhorn River.

Many helicopters have been called to attend the scene in southwest Arlington, the Dodge County Sheriff's Office said.

The floods have had serious consequences on movements in areas surrounding the metropolitan region of Omaha and in northeastern Nebraska.

The Highway 34 bridge on the Missouri River, north of Plattsmouth, was closed late Friday morning due to a suspended break. The road was closed from Highway 75 to the east, near the Sarpy and Cass county borders.

Most highways in north-central and northeastern Nebraska are also closed due to floods.

Click here to view the live map of the Nebraska Department of Transportation.

In Iowa, Interstate 29 is closed and detours are in place due to flooding. The I-680 between the Mormon Bridge and I-29 is also closed.

The Nebraska National Patrol Highway Helpline is open 24 hours for motorists requiring assistance. Drivers can reach NSP by dialing * 55 from any mobile phone or by calling 911 in an emergency.

The shelters are open throughout Nebraska and, in all, they serve about 700 people. To learn more about organizations working to help flood victims and first responders, click here.

World Herald Editors Alia Conley, Kelsey Stewart, Chris Peters, Erin Grace, Blake Ursch, Steve Liewer, Nancy Gaarder, Reece Ristau, Susan Szalewski and Roseann Moring contributed to this report, which includes information from the World Wide Web. Herald News Service.