When a large-scale emergency occurs in Nebraska, the Nebraska Department of Water, Energy, and Environment (DWEE) is often called upon to help. As part of its responsibilities under emergency support functions for Oil and Hazardous Materials (ESF 10), Agriculture and Natural Resources (ESF 11), and Energy (ESF 12), DWEE supports the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in coordinating response and recovery efforts.

DWEE has previously covered ESF 10 and ESF 12 responsibilities in this series

All responses start locally and work their way to state and federal resources. When a significant event occurs, NEMA will immediately consult with DWEE and other agencies on the need to activate the emergency support functions (ESFs). ESFs each focus on a critical infrastructure need such as transportation, communication, public works, housing, public health, agriculture, and public safety, to name a few. 

Under ESF 11, the Nebraska Department of Agriculture is the coordinating agency and DWEE is one of several supporting agencies. DWEE supports NEMA, and works closely with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the National Weather Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Nebraska Department of Transportation, the Nebraska State Patrol, and the Nebraska National Guard.

The purpose of ESF 11 is to coordinate state, local, and federal efforts to protect Nebraska's animal, plant, and food resources from diseases, contamination, and contagions. By pooling the technical resources available, ESF 11 aims to rapidly address incidents, minimizing public health and economic consequences to return the state to normal operations.

To help achieve this goal, the department provides technical assistance and support regarding flood hazards across Nebraska during an emergency. The department helps to determine where it is going to flood and how deep the flooding will be. This information helps local responders determine areas that need to be protected or evacuated. 

The department coordinates with dam owners across the state to monitor their structures and identify structures that may be under distress. If a dam is in danger of failing, the department helps to determine the extent of downstream flooding to expect, the roads that need to be closed, the areas that need evacuated, and also makes suggestions to dam owners that may help prevent or at least delay dam failure. 

The department provides floodplain and inundation maps to support agencies in mapping field information. Some areas have inundation boundaries and are available on the Nebraska Real-Time Flood Forecasting (NeRFF) site, nerff.nebraska.gov, which contains a map intended to be used to provide flood hazard data to property owners and emergency managers prior to and during flooding events.

Under ESF 11, DWEE provides the following assistance to other support agencies:

• technical assistance in the disaster planning stage to provide necessary mapping information
• locations of registered domestic and municipal drinking water wells and irrigation and industrial wells
• coordination with local floodplain administrators on substantial damage assessments post-disaster
• assistance to communities with National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) compliance post-disaster

The department also coordinates on ice jam monitoring and hosts the ice jam reporting site, https://dnr.nebraska.gov/floodplain/ice-jam-reporting.