Extreme Weather 2019: More Evacuations In Midwest As Flood Waters Continue To Rise

Midwestern residents continue to be evacuated from their homes Monday as major flooding has led to three deaths, as well as damaged houses, roadways and a military base.

Forty-one locations have recorded historically highwater river levels in the Midwest due to late winter flooding caused by a noxious mix of snow melt and a vicious "bomb cyclone" last week.

Major flooding began late in the week in Nebraska, where 900 people were placed in temporary shelters. A Nebraska farmer died Thursday while attempting to rescue a driver trapped in a vehicle. Two other Nebraska men have been reported missing and are presumed dead.

The Sarpy County Nebraska Sheriff's Office on Monday announced approximately 500 homes have been destroyed by the floodwaters and that two levees were toppled during the devastation.

Flooding has shifted in Iowa, as water continues to flow downstream. One Iowa driver was killed Friday when waters swept him away.

According to the Associated Press, the Missouri River reached 30.2 feet Sunday in one southwestern Iowa county leading to levees being toppled. Greg London of the Sarpy County Sheriff’s Office told the AP that while he has seen flooding in the area that the levels were "unprecedented."

Despite these recorded historic high water levels, County Emergency Management Director Mike Crecelius told the AP that it isn't the amount of water but the force of the current that is responsible for widespread devastation in the state.

"This wasn’t a gradual rise," Crecelius stated. "It’s flowing fast and it’s open country — there’s nothing there to slow it down."

The destruction of the levees also prompted the entire town of Pacific Junction, Iowa, to evacuate on Sunday, according to the Mills County Sheriff's Office.

Nearby, the Offutt Air Force Base was evacuated Sunday and limited to "mission essential personnel only," according to a tweet sent by the base's social media account.

A spokesperson for the Offutt Air Force Base told the Omaha World-Herald that a third of the base is currently underwater despite efforts to stave off the floodwaters with a 30-hour sandbagging effort. Approximately 60 buildings on the base have been destroyed, with 30 of them logged with eight feet of water.

Mike Manion, a commander for the base's 55th Wing, posted the same day that the water levels "have remained at the same level for 12 hours" and that responders at Offutt "are not expecting the water to rise but are preparing just in case."

He added that members the Army Corp of Engineers expect waters to recede Thursday.

Flooding is expected to continue downstream into Missouri and Kansas, where precautionary measures are already being taken to brace state residents and property against the deluge.

In St. Joseph, Missouri, where waters are predicted to crest at 30.1 feet at the beginning of the week, city officials are recruiting mass amounts of volunteers to aid the city in filling and laying thousands of sandbags in an attempt to add at least two feet to a nearby levee.

City Spokesperson Mary Robinson told local FOX affiliate WDAF that volunteers from the town, which has a population of 76,000, have filled 25,000 sandbags so far, with a goal of filling 150,000 by Tuesday.

"There are a lot of assets, both public and private, that are along the banks of the river just on the inside of the levees," Robinson said of the necessity of the sandbagging efforts. "If the levees were to break, were to overtop, it would be devastating for those areas."