Get ready for another round of storms today

While residents of Ceresco are cleaning up today, others in the Fremont area are keeping on eye on creeks and streams and waiting for another round of possibly severe storms.

Wednesday’s storms damaged buildings and brought down utility lines and trees in Ceresco Wednesday night and dumped 2.5 inches of rain in Wahoo.

Saunders County was under a flash flood warning until 8:45 a.m. today and the National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch for the entire area until 5 a.m. Friday.

The forecast is calling for a 90 percent chance of thunderstorms tonight, some of which could be severe. Locally heavy rainfall of 1 inch or more per hour is expected.

There also was a wind advisory in effect until 1 p.m. today.

Flooding closed some roads in Saunders County this morning.

The National Weather Service reported local law enforcement officials had closed roads near Weston.

In Ceresco, several residents said they saw damaging, heavy winds Wednesday but did not see a tornado.

Steve Sousek did not know whether the storm that hit the town was a tornado.

But it hit hard at about 8:30 p.m., he said.

“Part of our roof got ripped off,” said Sousek, manager of the Barn Door restaurant in Ceresco.

He said his nephew’s home down the street got hit, and his windows were blown out.

Similar damage occurred throughout town.

“Quite a bit of stuff in town got hit,” he said.

Sousek said he, his son and three other employees took shelter in the bathroom at about 8:30. The customers already had left.

The storm blew the ceiling down into the restaurant, he said, and about one-third of the building was damaged.

Bonnie Anderson, who lives on the west edge of town, said windows on the west side of her home blew out, and hail pelted the house.

“I’m just thankful to be here,” she said.

Lisa and Jeff Adams huddled beneath a basement stairwell, covered by a blanket, for half an hour.

“It looks like a tornado” hit the town, Lisa Adams said after a walk around her southwest Ceresco neighborhood.

A neighbor’s tree had been twisted in a circle and pulled about 8 inches out of the ground, she said.

Part of the tree was now lying across the kennel of her black Lab mix, Phoenix, who shared the space beneath the stairwell with its owners.

At 10:30 p.m., about 30 Ceresco residents were outside the town waiting to be let in. Deputies had closed off the town primarily due to downed power lines.

Saunders County Sheriff Kevin Stukenholtz was still in Ceresco this morning. He said at about 6:30 a.m. residents and cleanup crews were allowed into the town, but it remained closed off to other traffic.

He said trees and power lines were down all over town as well as several houses damaged.

“We’ve requested a disaster declaration from the governor,” Stukenholtz said.

He said there is no power in Ceresco or surrounding rural areas and there is no estimate when power or access to the town will be restored.

“It’s difficult to asses whether there was a tornado or not. I’ll leave that up to the experts,” Stukenholtz said. “I haven’t talked to anyone who saw a tornado, but there was kind of a path, which would suggest a tornado.”

County Roads B and C north of Ceresco are closed as well as County Road A north and west of Ceresco. Stukenholtz had no estimate as to when those roads would be re-opened.

Damage to the area is still being assessed.