In March of 2019, Nebraska and western Iowa experienced the costliest natural disaster in their documented history. The National Weather Service (NWS) Omaha Weather Forecast Office located in Valley, Nebraska became a part of the disaster early on March 15 as a levee broke 5 miles from the office, sending flood waters toward the NWS. The levee breach and impending flash flood required a rapid 90-minute execution of the Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) and evacuation of the property. This was the first time in the history of NWS Omaha that the COOP was executed, and one of the only times in the past 20 years that an NWS office was evacuated on such short notice. For the following week, NWS Omaha operations continued out of three separate locations during the ongoing significant flood disaster.
Oversight of personnel and operations dispersed across the area presented challenges not only for NWS Omaha, but other NWS offices hosting some of the staff, and partner agencies who generously offered space for NWS Omaha to continue providing normal services. One aspect of the event resulting an additional leadership challenge involved acknowledging the varying psychological responses of staff during the actual evacuation and as the disaster unfolded. Furthermore, leaders must balance assessment of one's own reaction while also providing necessary psychological first aid to staff working and personally impacted by the disaster.
This presentation will focus on several key findings, best practices, and experiences from this event, as these may prove to be valuable insights to other units of the weather enterprise experiencing future extreme events. 
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