Here we go again.
We're due, sometime soon here, for a second-straight evening of Weather From Hell. Welcome to late spring on the Great Plains.
LAST NIGHT, much of Nebraska and Iowa got to pick what was behind one of three curtains -- tornadoes, giant hail or flash flooding. Some contestants got the tornadoes, which -- in some cases -- means you have to give up everything else you've won. Ever.
Others took the giant hail, while many of the remainder ended up with le deluge. A few lucky contestants -- lucky, that is, if you're a masochist -- picked one curtain, then got the other two as parting gifts from a cosmic Monty Hall.
Now, we get to be on this prime-time game show again. Here's the recap, and the pregame preview, from this afternoon's Omaha World-Herald:
More severe weather and a serious threat of flooding were expected this afternoon and tonight in southeast Nebraska and western Iowa.MOST PLACES, springtime is seen as the season of rebirth . . . the season of pleasant weather and the warm up to a summer of fun. And that it is.
Wednesday night, the region was hit with a little bit of everything - heavy rain, hail, wind and, possibly, tornadoes.
Reports of tornadoes came in from the cities of Ceresco, Ulysses and Surprise in Nebraska and from near Glenwood, Red Oak and Malvern in Iowa, said Terry Landsvork, observation program leader at the National Weather Service office in Valley.
Landsvork said Plattsmouth, Neb., and Red Oak, Iowa, each had about 5½ inches of rain.
"They are building an ark in Plattsmouth," he said.
Murray, Neb., and Lincoln both reported hail measuring 1.75 inches in diameter. Reports of 1-inch hail came in from around the Omaha metropolitan area, Landsvork said.
A line of storms packing high winds and some suspected tornadoes ravaged Ceresco, about 15 miles north of Lincoln, about 8:30 p.m. The storm knocked out power, downed trees, blew out windows and blew off part of the roof of the town's only tavern, the Barn Door.
Storm debris was scattered across U.S. Highway 77, the location of the tavern and the Mills Squeegee convenience store. A satellite dish and some cinderblocks were blown off the store's roof.
Just west of town, the metal panels of a farm building were strewn around power poles and across a field. Damage to farm buildings also was reported farther west near Ulysses, Dwight and Valparaiso.
Eugene and Betty Tvrdy lost their century-old wooden barn and a machine shed near their farmhouse west of Ceresco.
One of the couple's goats died during the storm when the barn collapsed, trapping the animals. Nine other goats made it out of the rubble safely, Betty Tvrdy said today.
Two of the couple's missing horses were located this morning on the edge of the farmstead. Both horses appeared unharmed.
The goats and horses are staying with a neighbor today while the Tvrdys survey their damage and meet with insurance adjusters.
(snip)
Tornadoes also were reported in Nebraska near Champion, Maywood, Bertrand, Smithfield, Elwood, Kearney and Wauneta. Nearly a half-dozen funnel clouds were spotted in southwest Iowa.
An acreage about two miles south of Emerson, Iowa, home to a family of four, was wrecked by a tornado. Siding and part of the roof were torn from the house, and windows were broken. Trees were down, and limbs and branches were strewn about.
As the storm moved east in Iowa, it damaged another home and then headed into Montgomery and Union Counties.
Larry Hurst, Mills County emergency management director, said the Emerson family was not injured. "A little shaken, but they were able to get safe shelter."
Two barns and a machine shed also were destroyed on the acreage, said Josh Bowen, a friend of the family.
The tornado was among four or five funnel clouds spotted in Mills County on Wednesday evening. No injuries were reported.
But out here on the Plains, springtime also is the season of capricious and violent weather. The season during which you just might get unlucky, with everything you have at 5:15 one hot, humid and blustery afternoon gone with the wind by 5:17.
And you consider yourself blessed because you're alive, and your loved ones are alive. Not all are so lucky, as we have seen across the mid-South and Midwest over and over again this spring. Already.
It gives you something to think about this time of year. And it sends a dry-ice chill right down your spine when the tornado sirens sound and, if you're smart, you grab your pets and your loved ones and dash for the basement.
Omaha has been lucky. We haven't seen The Big One in 33 years. But that last Big One -- an EF-4 (out of 5) -- opened a gash that split the city in half and killed three.
Miraculously, only three.
EVEN TODAY, the 1975 Omaha tornado ranks as the second most costly in American history, having wreaked more than a billion dollars' havoc -- 1.1 billion 1975 dollars.
It's going to be another long night tonight. Hope the garden makes it through again.
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