“I don’t know how they’re going to get everything fixed that needs to be fixed,” said Ms. Snowdon, who said she had canceled a teaching assignment in a nearby town because it would have required 143 miles of driving. “It’s like a dream and you’re going to wake up and it’s going to be all O.K. But it’s not. This could be a year of traveling.”

For nearly a week, Nebraska and other Midwestern states have been inundated with water as rivers were overwhelmed with rain and melting snow that the frozen ground was unable to absorb. After days of harrowing helicopter rescues, frantic sandbagging and urgent evacuation orders, water levels had dropped in much of Nebraska by Tuesday and the daunting cleanup process was in full swing.

[Read more about how the floods have hurt Midwestern farmers.]

“We deal with flooding all the time,” said Kyle Schneweis, the director of the Nebraska Department of Transportation, but “when you talk about 1,500 miles of our system underwater, that’s an entirely different scope and scale.”

A full damage assessment from the flooding had yet to be calculated, but Mr. Schneweis said it was likely to reach hundreds of millions of dollars. State officials have promised to install temporary bridges and move swiftly with the most urgent repairs. But Nebraskans were bracing for many months of difficult travel in the state; some 200 miles of state highway were believed to be damaged or destroyed, as were 14 bridges. More county roads were also believed to be demolished.