Ceresco cleans up after Wednesday storm

CERESCO -- Ceresco residents awoke Thursday to find their town awash in a sea of green.

A heavy brush pile of fallen trees and greenery covered almost every yard and street.

Cars were crushed. Businesses closed for damage.

Four houses on the west edge of town were a total loss.

Wednesday night’s storm cut a narrow swath of destruction horizontally across Saunders County, from Valparaiso east, smashing farm sheds on its way.

And it broadsided Ceresco, 15 miles north of Lincoln.

Yet even as the town dug out of the gloom Thursday �” and faced the prospect of up to a week without power �” residents’ moods mostly remained sunny. Look on the bright side, many people said: No one was hurt.

Neighbors were helping neighbors.

Town chairman Mike Lloyd said the town installed new sirens with battery power last year. “I don’t mean to sound preachy, but God blessed us here,” he said.

And perhaps the battering brought out the best in the town.

‘There’s a lot of pain today,” said Robin Dotson, 24, tearing up. “But I guess we feel pretty lucky.”

The water and sewers were expected to be up and running Thursday night, thanks to generator power, said Saunders County Emergency Manager Terry Miller.

Restoring electricity will take three days to a week and will be no small feat, as power lines still littered roads and fields. “We’re just hoping for the best,” Miller said.

He said no damage estimate was available yet. Evaluation crews are expected today.

Nearly 100 area emergency personnel and heavy equipment operators swarmed in to help, said Red Cross coordinator Jennie Hovey. At their emergency stations, the Red Cross and Salvation Army served hundreds of meals.

“It’s been amazing to see the teamwork,” Hovey said.

Deb Spader agreed.

She and her husband arrived at their home on badly-hit Precinct Road minutes ahead of the storm.

Safely downstairs, “We didn’t hear the freight-train sound, but we did hear a bad pop,” she said.

It was the roof flying off their newly remodeled ranch home, where they lived 20 years.

It’s totalled now, but there’s still a silver lining �” though her waterlogged ceiling bulged all day, it held long enough for an army of friends and family to remove all their furniture and mementos. And someone they didn’t even know brought them plastic tubs.

Across their backyard, newlyweds Andrea and Justin Woita also had heard a pop �” when the Spaders’ roof slammed into theirs.

“We just spent $5,000 on this living room, and, of course, it was the worst hit,” Andrea Woita said, standing ankle deep in insulation.

The hail had sounded like someone was shooting a machine gun at the house, she said. And sure enough, her parents’ house across the way looks like a Dalmatian because of its black spots.

Still, the mother and daughter found reasons to smile and joke.

“Of course, she’ll rebuild right next to her mother,” teased her Andrea Woita’s mom, Sophie Custer.

Others also looked ahead.

At the Barn Door restaurant, co-owner Steve Sousek said the whole dining room area would need to be rebuilt where the roof was torn away. But the kitchen and lounge were in good shape.

Ernie’s of Ceresco appeared to be untouched.

Damage to Swanson Ford was apparent only close up, with tiny dings dotting the exterior of showroom. Every car outside had hail damage, co-owner Elaine Swanson said.

Swanson said the storm’s sounds at her house were intense, “The wind started screaming throughout the house. It had to be a tornado, the way it sounded.”

And many residents doubted that anything less than a tornado could have done such damage.

“I think there had to be at least some kind of rotation,” Emergency Manager Terry Miller said.

He said rural residents also had major damage, losing machine sheds, barns and portions of roofs.

Amanda Moon, 25, said her house, halfway between Ceresco and Valparaiso, had twisted metal bins. Her boyfriend was driving in the storm, and he told her the wind whipped his car 180 degrees.

Damage also could be seen all along County Road B east of town.

Gwen and Dick Porter of Porter Ridge Farms lost their entire stall barn and horse arena. Thankfully, of their 25 horses, just a few suffered small scratches.

Gwen Porter was grateful for her horse Poncho, found surrounded by the wreckage of the smashed barn.

“He was standing like a statue, so still, and that was the only place he could be and still be alive,” she said.

“You never understand when people say ‘who cares about the damage? No one got hurt,’” she said. “But then it happens to you, and you really do. It’s the gift of life that’s precious, be it animal or human.”