PHOTOS: Offutt Air Force Base sees 'slow water regression'
Despite more than 235,000 sandbags, 460 flood barriers, and hours of intense work, roughly one-third of Offutt Air Force Base was submerged by flood waters over the weekend. Personnel have resumed normal operations — unless the building they work in happens to be one of the roughly 60 buildings flooded.
Flooding started on March 15 after record-setting snowfall led to an increase in the water levels of Missouri River and Papio Creek. The waters quickly overcame the southeast side of the installation. 30 buildings on base have as much as eight feet of water.
Water levels on base finally stopped rising Sunday morning and have been slowly regressing since. The installation should be completely above water in 7 to 10 days. The community and Air Force personnel have started recovery efforts and management of potential fuel leaks.
This is the second natural disaster to significantly damage an Air Force installation in less than six months.
