It had been a particularly harsh winter night in northern Nebraska. Days earlier, a “bomb cyclone” had swept across the Midwest, bringing freezing rain, whiteout conditions and winds of up to 89 mph. Perched in the powerhouse at the Spencer Dam, two overnight operators watched as thick chunks of ice—some as large as pickup trucks—pummeled the 92-year-old dam. The operators tried to open the dam’s emergency spillways, but found some had been frozen shut. As water levels surged and it became clear failure was imminent, the operators abandoned the dam’s powerhouse at 4:30 a.m. and drove into the neighborhood below to pound on doors, begging people to evacuate. At 5:15 a.m., the dam broke, sending an 11-foot-tall wave of water downstream, flooding multiple towns and neighborhoods

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