Officials are still envisioning the damage Missouri River flooding is causing, but at a town hall style meeting Wednesday in Tekamah, residents were just trying to wrap their arms around its local impact.

State Sens. Lydia Brasch (District 16) of Bancroft and Chris Langemeier (District 23) of Schuyler, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, participated in the meeting with around 30 people at Right Next Door.

Several people blamed U.S. Army Corps of Engineers "mismanagement" for causing a flood they said could have been alleviated or averted.

Lloyd Olson grew up along the river and farmed near its banks for almost 60 years. He wondered why water bottled in dams upstream wasn't released sooner to make room for snowmelt.

"Last year on my property I could see deer wading across the river, they didn't have to swim," he said, "and all the farmers around here wondered why they weren't releasing that water. We knew about Montana and all of the snow up there.

"They had three or four months to run that river full. That's what's disgusting to me," he said.

Cliff Morrow, chairman of the Burt County Board of Supervisors, said the Corps "went by the book. ... The fact is their book is wrong."

"It is mismanagement and they missed it by a long ways, they didn't miss it by a little bit," Morrow said. "You stand down there at my place and watch the water go by, and they tell you it's going to go on for three or four months, you realize how badly they missed it."

Phil Erdman, the state agriculture director on U.S. Sen. Mike Johanns' staff, said Johanns is trying to get answers from the Corps, as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency about the National Flood Insurance Program. Johanns, in a June 22 news release, said those agencies must focus on management and response now, "but the time will come for straightforward, honest explanations to some very valid questions."

"It's our understanding," Erdman said, "at least for the near future, that Gavins Point is going to stay at 160,000 (cubic feet per second released). It's our understanding that that's going to occur through August, so it's going to be at that level for some time," he said.

"The Corps just announced last week that May and June were their highest inflows in the history of their system, which goes back to 1898, so there's obviously a lot of water coming in," he said.

FEMA named June 1, when floodwaters were first released from the Garrison Dam in North Dakota, as the official starting point of flooding. That has implications for insurance coverage.

"I've heard of this date, June 1 or June 2," said Region 5/6 Emergency Manager Bill Pook, whose area includes Burt, Dodge and Washington counties, "that's bull because on May 25 I was up to my knees in floodwater.

"I know that our people were flooded by May 25," Pook said.

So far affected farm land is estimated at around 500,000 acres, Erdman said, but "the actual impact is being calculated."

Michael Kresin, Nebraska district director for the Farm Service Agency, said his agency is collecting damage assessments from counties.

"Damage assessments will hopefully culminate with a secretarial designation for counties along the river," he said. "A secretarial disaster declaration will allow our agency to start making emergency loans to producers."

County FSA offices also are collecting reports for the emergency conservation program, which will assist producers with cost-share to clean up debris sand removal after the water recedes, and the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments program will be available, "but it won't kick in for about a year," he said.

"The important thing for producers to do, and a lot of producers already have," Kresin said, "is to ensure that they're reporting losses and damages and changes to their farming operation to the FSA office."

Grazing on Conservation Reserve Program land initially was allowed and is being considered again, Kresin said.

Along with response efforts, Pook said his staff is documenting damage to public property.

"At the same time," he said, "I'm working on the individual assistance, which is for the citizens themselves. That's displaced people with personal property lost or primary residences, and also for farm property improvements.

"People need assistance today," Pook said. "The way the FEMA system works, that financial assistance is not going to be available real fast, and people have to understand that."

Brasch said the flood will be an ongoing priority with the legislature.

"The impact on the economy, to families, livestock, livelihoods, our roads - it won't be simple," she said. "But Nebraskans have survived many things, and I do believe with patience and hard work we'll get through this."

Brasch is spending this week with "flooding refugees" in the former Dana College dorms, More than 100 people, including 30 children, are there, she said.

Wilson handed out a list of emergency resource contacts for people affected by the flood. It is linked to the Tribune's website, www.fremonttribune.com.