Tornadoes rip across state

Lincoln Journal Star staff and wire reports

Severe storms and tornadoes rolled across Nebraska Thursday evening, knocking a train off the track near Kearney, tearing apart buildings at the Buffalo County Fairgrounds and blowing trucks off Interstate 80 near Aurora.

The first wave of storms dissipated north of Lincoln, having missed the Capital City, but a second wave of storms -- a tornadic supercell -- was taking aim at Southeast Nebraska late Thursday night.

The Jefferson County sheriff’s office reported significant damage to a house after a tornado struck near Reynolds. At 11:10 p.m., at least one tornado was reported on the ground in the Fairbury area. Reports of two houses damaged near Fairbury could not be confirmed.

There were also tornado warnings in Gage and Saline counties.

Strong straight winds already had uprooted large trees and knocked over a semi in Saline County.

Lincoln was getting its third major windstorm in a week. Numerous tree limbs and power lines were reported down and there were sizable power outages.

West of York, a dozen miles of Interstate 80 between the Hampton and Giltner exits were closed when a high-voltage power line fell across the road, said Nebraska State Patrol Lt. Dennis Leonard.

The storm blew over at least four semis, he said, but authorities received just one report of an injury; a trucker was treated for a non-life-threatening injury.

Another trucker was trapped in his semi by the power line.

In Kearney, where the first tornadoes struck around 5:20 p.m., NPPD power crews were trying to restore power to about 12,000 customers.

Gov. Dave Heineman declared a state of emergency and was expected to travel to the area Friday to survey storm damage.

“We won’t know the full extent of the damage until tomorrow, however it appears that Kearney was hardest hit and that is where our assistance will be focused overnight,” the governor said in a news release.

Early reports indicate that there are several dozen homes damaged in and around Kearney, and several more that sustained damage in the Aurora area, Heineman said.

The storm moved east along the interstate corridor, triggering tornado sightings and warnings near Grand Island, Aurora and York before weakening north of Lincoln.

Kearney: ‘Sounded like an airplane’

In Kearney, there were reports of damage on the University of Nebraska at Kearney campus, and Good Samaritan Hospital near downtown Kearney suffered some damage.

None of the 250 students living on the UNK campus reported injuries, although nearly every building sustained at least minor damage.

After the storm left the campus without electricity, officials moved the students to one residence hall that was powered by a generator, said Curt Carlson, vice chancellor for university relations.

“All of the students were accounted for,” Carlson said.

Uprooted trees blocking streets and sidewalks represented the most visible sign of the storm’s presence, he said. University officials were still assessing damage, but a hole in the roof of the fine arts building was one of the worst examples Carlson had seen.

The university uses a four-day schedule during the summer session, so classes weren’t scheduled Friday.

Keith Terry, a faculty member in the UNK communications department, was in his office in the library when the storm hit. Although his office has no windows, he said he could hear storm sirens, strong wind and the sound of debris hitting the building.

Because a friend was unable to reach the campus after the storm to give him a ride, Terry said he walked roughly 20 blocks home. He saw mature trees pushed over, their root balls sometimes damaging sidewalks or blocking streets.

He also noticed a number of international students taking pictures.

“Some of them have only been in town three days,” he said, “so this was their welcome to campus.”

A nursing supervisor said some doors were blown in and roofs were blown off, but no patients were affected, she said. At Good Samaritan Hospital, spokeswoman Marsha Wilkerson said no one had come to the hospital for treatment because of the storm.

“Our patients are safe. Our staff is safe,” she said.

Eagles Lounge manager Dee Stegeman said a friend came in with a digital camera filled with photos of the damage.

The building at the Buffalo County Fairgrounds where truck pulls are held was halfway torn apart.

“The new pavilion is gone,” she said. “It’s trashed.”

Downtown, streets flooded, some businesses were damaged and the power went off about 5:30 p.m., Stegeman said.

“There’s a lot of trees down, a lot of trees, some pulled up at the roots,” she said.

Stegeman said about a dozen employees and customers huddled in the men’s bathroom to wait out the storm.

The thunder hit first, she said, and then a wind like she’d never heard.

“It was the strangest wind sound. It sounded like an airplane was overhead all the time.”

They emerged from the bathroom after about 45 minutes, she said.

“I walked out the back door in the alley and the water was at 3 inches.”

The bar’s trash bin blew about a block and a half from the alley and ended up near the art museum parking lot.

“Everybody will be looking for our Dumpsters for a week.”

Stegeman said part of the gutter at the World II Theatre across the street was ripped off and water from the storm flooded the inside.

Kim Triplett, driving across the east side of town to find her grandchildren, found significant tree damage that seemed to mirror last year’s ice storm, she said.

She said she passed an apartment complex where the storm had destroyed an exercise room.

Near that, she saw a car sitting on top of another.

About 10 miles west, a Union Pacific train derailed near Odessa. The empty coal train was headed to Wyoming when it was thrown from the tracks at about 5:35 p.m., said Union Pacific Spokesman Mark Davis. Of the train’s 118 cars, 93 were pushed off the track.

No one was injured in the derailment, Davis said, and no roads were blocked as a result of it. Trains were able to get by on a parallel track.

Aurora: Interstate raked

Near Aurora, much of the damage seemed to center south of the town, near the interstate.

A employee at Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores said the storm took canopies off the station and blew equipment off the roof, but no one was hurt �” and no campers parked there were damaged.

On the closed stretch of the interstate, a truck driver was trapped in his vehicle by downed power lines, said NPPD spokesman Mark Becker.

“We had reports the lines were wrapped around his truck,” he said. “Our crews are talking to him. They told him to stay in the truck. It’s the best place to be.”

The fallen power line is a 345-kilovolt line that runs from Grand Island to McCool Junction and eventually Sheldon Station in southern Lancaster County.

Only the stretch between Grand Island and McCool Junction was affected by the storm. NPPD rerouted electricity to provide service to other communities.

Earlier, the storm knocked out power to about 1,000 customers in the York area but the electricity was restored.

“We are seeing a lot of poles down,” Becker said. NPPD crews are assessing the damage, so he doesn’t know how many poles were knocked down.

The utility is calling in all available crews to help, but some are already in Parkersburg, Iowa, helping restore power from last weekend’s tornado.

Nearly 700 homes in Aurora were without power late Thursday.

Harry Eckerson was monitoring the weather from Aurora’s town square at about 9:30 p.m. Power was on there, but not back at his house.

“Most of the damage here is tree limbs and actually some trees uprooted,” Eckerson said. “So it was a pretty strong wind.“

He got in his car to check out damage south of Aurora earlier, and found conditions to be worse as he got closer to the interstate.

“A lot of grain bins, center pivots turned over.” The bins “looked like pop cans tossed out in the field.“

He spent part of the early evening in his basement. “I haven’t done that in a while.”

Cory Matteson, Catharine Huddle, Art Hovey, Algis J. Laukaitis, Joe Duggan, Cara Pesek and Kendra Waltke contributed to this story.