Facing the storm

Ron Weaklend, a vice president at First State Bank and Trust in Fremont, was at work when the devastating storm hit.

He and other employees looked out the bank’s windows as wind, rain and hail swept through the area.

"The carnival was across the street and we were wondering when the Ferris wheel was going to tip over," he said.

That didn’t happen, but Weaklend knew he’d better check on his property at Woodcliff.

Carol Pirsch was on the phone when her dog began scratching wildly at the door.

Promise, a West Highland white terrier, wanted to get into the house quickly.

When Pirsch came to the door, she could see why.

"I went to the door and I saw the wind coming in one direction and the hail and tree branches started flying," she said.

Pirsch grabbed her little dog and headed for a closet - probably the safest place in her house to be in a storm. The electricity went out, but Pirsch and Promise made it there.

As the wind roared, she heard the large cottonwood tree in the front yard crash into her home at Woodcliff. Hail riddled the side of her home like machine gun bullets.

"This is going to wipe us out pretty good," she thought.

Tom Sawyer of Sawyer Construction was working in Fremont when the storm rolled in.

He knew he had to get home to Woodcliff.

His wife, Robin, 3-year-old son, Zach, and infant daughter, Erica, were there.

Carla Mahrt had just finished a conference call in the office of her Woodcliff home.

One minute, the skies were sunny.

"The next thing you know the whole sky was dark and the wind was unbelievable. I couldn’t even see 2 feet out in front of our house. (There) was hail and wind and tree branches and trees falling everywhere," she said.

Worse yet, Mahrt’s teenage sons were out at the Platte River which borders Woodcliff.

"The storm came so fast that they couldn’t get back to our house," she said.

Woodcliff is a housing development situated around a manmade lake

south of Fremont. It is a place with lots of trees and foliage. Deer, bald eagles and other wildlife are easily spotted in the area. There are 450 homes here. Some people live here full time. Others stay during the summer or on weekends.

Residents and their guests relax on the beach, float in pontoon boats on the lake or dine at one of the restaurants.

People like Pirsch love living here.

Pirsch even has a sign over her fireplace which reads "Just Another Day in Paradise."

On June 27, however, Pirsch and other residents had trouble in paradise when straight-line winds of up to 115 mph swept through the area, causing thousands of dollars of damage to homes, vehicles and boats. But while fierce winds tore apart property, they bonded residents of this community, who worked together to clean up the storm-battered area.

A DISASTER SCENE

The storm, which flattened area cornfields and downed power poles, lasted only about

10 minutes that early Friday evening.

Once it was over, Weaklend knew he’d better go to his Woodcliff house. Only recently, he’d put in a shore station to hold his pontoon boat out of the water.

"With that high of winds, I just knew I was going to have problems," he said.

Still dressed in slacks, a white shirt and tie, Weaklend headed out. He reached Woodcliff at about 5:30 p.m. - and found a disaster.

"It looked like a movie set," he said. "I couldn’t comprehend what I was looking at in terms of downed trees and powerlines and overturned boats."

Trees blocked the roads and Weaklend couldn’t get in - so he parked his car and walked. People were milling about making sure no one was hurt. By now the sun was shining and the skies were blue.

As he stepped over powerlines, Weaklend saw a roof laying in the road.

"The closer I got, I realized that it was probably my roof," he said.

STORM AFTERMATH

When she finally looked out of the closet, Pirsch could see from a window that the worst of the storm had passed.

She telephoned the son she’d been talking to when the storm hit.

Pirsch also got a call from Duane Moeller. She and Moeller have lived in their Woodcliff home for four years. Moeller had been in the hospital about a week before the storm hit. He wanted her to come get him.

But she couldn’t - not right away.

A couple of Woodcliff residents had left their cars in the street. Downed cottonwoods blocked the street, too.

"I walked around in shock and finally there were fire engines and rescue squads. The road was packed with cars and rescue equipment and emergency workers," Pirsch said.

LOCATING FAMILY

Since cell phone reception isn’t the best at Woodcliff, Mahrt found that text messaging her sons was the thing to do.

Josh, 17, and his friends had been at the river with their ATVs when the storm hit. They broke a screen door to get into one of their friend’s houses to take shelter.

Jackson, 14, and a friend were at the opposite end of the lake on the riverside. They took shelter under a railroad bridge, then made it to the friend’s house.

When she knew her children were safe, Mahrt went into a storm shelter in her home. She called her husband, Lonnie, who works in Omaha. He had no idea that a storm was sweeping through Woodcliff.

But his wife did.

"The way it sounded and with the total lack of visibility, I thought there might have been a tornado on top of us," she said, adding, "I love storms, but that was about the first time I’ve really been scared."

After the storm, she opened her front door and was met in the face by a branch. She walked outside and saw uprooted trees. Neighbors were checking to see if everyone was OK.

"Everybody was sort of in awe at the debris in the streets, on the houses and in the lake. There were entire trees in the lake," she said.

Lawn furniture floated in the lake. Entire docks were ripped up.

ASSESSING THE DAMAGE

After spotting the roof in the roadway, Weaklend walked around to the back of his cabin where he had a covered porch over a large deck. The roof over his porch and part of his cabin was gone.

"I looked at my dock and my pontoon and shore station weren’t there," he said. "I figured they probably were loose and were floating in the cove somewhere. But it (the boat) was upside down in the shore station - at my neighbor’s."

HEADING TO THE HOSPITAL

Pirsch drove to the Omaha hospital where Moeller was. The hospital had cleared its top stories. Everyone on his floor had evacuated, but he wouldn’t leave. He was waiting for her.

They came home to a dark house. She found candles and they went to bed. The next morning they made arrangements to go somewhere that had electricity - something he needed for his breathing machine.

PICKING UP THE PIECES

Sawyer headed home to Woodcliff to see how bad the storm was, but couldn’t get into the lake area because of trees blocking the roadway.

He called work. Sawyer Construction is a utility and concrete contractor and a business his grandfather started in 1955. Employees brought three trucks, two loaders and an excavator to the site.

Five guys, including Sawyer, worked until 10 p.m. Friday and 10 hours on both Saturday and Sunday, cutting trees and loading them into the trucks.

Hundreds of people worked, cutting trees and dragging them to a pile.

"People were everywhere trying to help," he said.

Sawyer’s house had minor damage.

WORKING TOGETHER

That Friday night, several of the Weaklend family’s friends helped get the roof covered, tarped and protected.

The next day, Weaklend, his wife, Cindy, and sons Matt, 31, Jeff, 29, and Tom, 24, and daughters-in-law set to work.

Weaklend borrowed a chain saw and began cutting tree limbs. He and his family helped neighbors cut up trees that had fallen on their homes. Family members cut tree limbs into smaller pieces, which they dragged away.

Weaklend got the tree off Moeller’s house.

A RAY OF HOPE

Pirsch and Moeller returned to Woodcliff Sunday morning.

"We knew we had to face this devastation and think about what to do," she said. "We were both so depressed and, I think, in shock, too, and we just almost hated to come back.

"But when we drove down County Road W, here was a crew working on the big cottonwood that fell on our house," she continued. "They’d cleared the small branches and the larger ones so we could see our house.

"I can’t express what a psychological lift that was - just to see our house and that it wasn’t completely demolished in front."

There was a hole in the roof and a pipe that held electrical wires was bent. Pirsch figures the Weaklends had to do some artful climbing to get some of the branches off the house.

But she and Moeller are very grateful.

"That family was absolutely fantastic," she said.

MAKING HEADWAY

Work progressed Sunday.

"By Sunday evening it was as if nothing happened, visibly. It was cleaned up and gone," Weaklend said.

Many people helped including Sawyer Construction, Goree Excavating and All Metals Market.

"These people donated many, many hours of equipment and help on their own," he said.

The Fremont Rural Fire Department went door to door. Dodge County React helped.

"It was people helping people in a time of crisis," Weaklend said. "There were a lot of people who got involved."

Norm Nelson, a full-time resident and chairman of the Sanitary Improvement District, said emergency generators and pumping units were brought in to keep fluids moving. Some storm sewers filled with sand that will have to be removed.

"We’re still in the process of getting bids to do that," he said.

ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE

Before the storm, Pirsch was expecting a visit from her daughter, son-in-law, their children and his parents from the Netherlands.

They came on Monday along with family from Omaha and all helped bring branches to the roadside.

"There are lots of heroes in this story," Pirsch said.

A boy who mows their lawn came to help. Two women loaded branches into their pickup. Others stopped to help as well. Pirsch even took photographs of the people working.

Following the storm, Pirsch had turned around the sign that read "Just Another Day in Paradise."

But she since has turned it back so she can read it again.

The thought of all those who helped still warms her heart.

"It was a fantastic experience that I don’t ever want to go through again," she said.