LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Business may be booming even louder at some Nebraska fireworks stands this Fourth of July, because road and bridge closures are blocking many of the ways to Missouri fireworks suppliers.
Many Nebraskans make early summer trips to Rock Port, Mo., each year for low-priced fireworks and some items forbidden in their counties or the state.
But the Missouri River flooding has made the trip an adventure in detours. Interstate 29 is shut down in the area, and every bridge across the river is closed from St. Joseph, Mo., to Omaha.
Pat Egan, president of Crazy Cracker Fireworks, which supplies fireworks to about 100 stands in Nebraska and South Dakota, told the Lincoln Journal Star that it's unfortunate that flooding will keep some people from going to Rock Port. He said he has friends there in the fireworks business, and they're having a tough time.
And, Egan said, he's having a tough time getting his own supplies.
"Getting our fireworks the last week or so has been difficult because of all of the water," he said. "Some of our things have been routed through Des Moines (Iowa) to get to Lincoln."
Egan said his outlets "can sell everything Missouri has to offer ... except stick (bottle) rockets."
Brice Ball, a salesman with Liberty Fireworks at the Rock Port interchange on I-29, said business has been slow and he doesn't expect it perk up before the holiday.
"It'll be drastically less. Sales will be drastically less," Ball said.
But he said some of his regular customers are making the effort.
"People that want to come down, they are coming down," Ball said. "We're not going to get that through-interstate traffic because the interstate is closed, obviously."
And, he said, the flooding also hurts restaurants, truck stops and other businesses at the I-29 interchange at Rock Port.
"Any business at the Rock Port exit is going to be affected - not just fireworks," Ball said.