Hallam, NE nearly destroyed by Tornado

[weatherwunder]

I have family in Hallam, they are okay, but there house is completely destroyed. They have lost everything.


Hallam, a town of about 275 just 25 miles south of Lincoln, was among the hardest hit, said Kerry Eagan, chief administrative officer for the county.


"It's been severely damaged," Eagan said. "The grain elevator was completely destroyed and possibly the entire town, maybe one house standing at this point."


There were no reports of deaths or serious injuries.



Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner said his deputies were going house to house in Hallam, searching for injured people. Power was shut off because of downed power lines.


Wagner said there were gas leaks in town and heavy flooding. He said officials had difficulty getting vehicles into town.


"We're calling in about every off-duty deputy that we can get ahold of," he said.


To the east, Norris High School's auditorium received massive damage, including a hole in a wall and extensive roof damage. Superintendent Roy Baker said the school's bus garages also were damaged, and he feared the gym roof was damaged, too.


"The way it sounds, we're going to have a pretty mad scramble to have everything ready to go when school starts in August," Baker said. The school dismissed for the year Friday.


Gov. Mike Johanns has issued an emergency for areas damaged by tornadoes and severe storms, spokeswoman Terri Teuber said.


The Nebraska Emergency Management Agency was to begin storm

assessments, Teuber said. Johanns' declaration makes available National Guard troops, access to the governor's emergency fund and potential federal resources, she said.


Teuber said Johanns also was expected to tour damaged areas this afternoon.
Officials were trying to bus storm victims to Crete High School, Southwest High School in Lincoln and the Sheldon Power Station near Hallam.

"Hallam has about 100 people standing out in the rain," Crete Police Chief Steve Hensel said late Saturday. "We need bus support to get them to shelter. That's what we're doing right now."


In Saline County, a tornado reportedly touched down south of Wilber, causing high winds to pass over the downtown area.


They knocked down a wall and most of the second floor of the Coppertop restaurant, sending bricks and glass into the street and damaging a car.
At least two homes south of town had extensive damage and some injuries were reported, said Tom Janechek of the Wilber Police Department. He couldn't provide details.


Many streets in Wilber were impassable because of downed trees and power lines.


The nearby towns of Swanton, Tobias and Western also were hit by storms; 12 acreages north of Clatonia were damaged, according to officials.


In York County, baseball-size hail and winds of 80 to 90 mph were reported.
Flash flooding was reported in Lancaster County south of Lincoln and in Gage County north of Beatrice.


Sgt. Don Scheinost of the Lincoln Police Department said there appeared to be little damage in town.


"It appears that the city itself hasn't received much damage," he said.


Farther west, seven homes were damaged in Clay County as well as two farms in Fillmore County, Teuber said.


The Adams County Sheriff's Office reported a tornado in Pauline, 12 miles south of Hastings. The storm damaged buildings, trees and power lines and tipped over some trailers, a dispatcher said.


Theresa Keck, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in North Platte, said a tornado hit one mile north of Oconto at 6:34 p.m. The same tornado was spotted at 7:17 p.m. three miles west of Ansley, she said.


Keck said there were no reports of damage from that twister.


Brian Smith, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Valley, said a tornado hit one mile northwest of Douglas in Otoe County at 9:14 p.m. He also said another tornado hit one mile north of Firth, causing heavy damage.


Teuber said damage also was reported in Cass and Furnas Counties.


Portions of Saline and Lancaster counties received about 3 inches of rain, Smith said. Two-inch diameter hail was reported in Fremont.


Winds reached 77 miles per hour at the National Weather Service office in North Platte, she said.


Heavy winds ripped off an air conditioning unit at a Fremont Wal-Mart store. The unit landed on a sport utility vehicle.


The National Weather Service in Valley also was reporting golf-ball-sized hail near Schuyler, in northeast Nebraska.

[Aquawind]

Glad they are OK..The radars really started glowing late yesterday..not surprised at the distruction..the direct hit sucks though..

[simplykristi]

Glad to hear that your family is OK but sorry to hear about the loss of their home and possessions. Just by watching the radar screen over on the NOAA website, I knew the weather was very dangerous.

Kristi

[Stephanie]

Weather - I'm glad to hear that your family is alright. I see that they are still not allowing families back into their homes to assess the damage.

[furluvcats]

wxwunder...glad to hear your family is OK. Its still the biggest nightmare of their lives though...prayers out to them and those communities...

[Pebbles]

Prayers for your family...glad everyone is ok *big hugs*

Chrissie

[weatherwunder]

They were going to let everyone in at 2pm. They were still working on securing the area for natural gas leaks and such.

There is still one person unaccounted for, that they are also searching for.

Thanks for the well wishes for my family. It is only 18 miles from Lincoln, so we feel pretty lucky here in town.

[senorpepr]

Code: Select all

ZCZC OMAPNSOMA
ABUS34 KOMA 231830
PNSOMA

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OMAHA/VALLEY
130 PM CDT SUN MAY 23 2004

         ...AT LEAST AN F3 TORNADO AT HALLAM NEBRASKA...

A DAMAGE ASSESSMENT SURVEY IS CURRENTLY BEING CONDUCTED BY THE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ACROSS SOUTH CENTRAL NEBRASKA IN SOUTHERN
LANCASTER COUNTY. AT THIS TIME...WARNING COORDINATION METEOROLOGIST
BRIAN SMITH HAS RATED THE TORNADO IN THE HALLAM NEBRASKA VICINITY
AT LEAST F3 WITH ESTIMATED WIND SPEEDS OF 150 TO 200 MPH. THE DAMAGE
PATH WIDTH APPEARS TO BE AT LEAST A MILE WIDE IN SOME LOCATIONS.

THE TORNADO PATH LENGTH IS UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME...AS THE SURVEY HAS
ONLY JUST BEGUN. THE STORM SURVEY TEAM WILL CONTINUE WORKING FOR THE
REMAINDER OF THE DAY TODAY...AND ADDITIONAL SURVEYS WILL LIKELY BE
CONDUCTED ON MONDAY AS WELL.

THIS IS A PRELIMINARY RATING...AND AS SUCH...IS STILL SUBJECT TO
CHANGE. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION WILL BE PROVIDED AS DETAILS BECOME
AVAILABLE.

$$

DEWALD

NNNN

[Stephanie]

Thanks for that info senorpepr!