Tornado hits Lake McConaughy; trees damaged in Lincoln by overnight storms (2024)

A tornado touched down Thursday night at Lake McConaughy, causing significant damage and at least one injury.

The National Weather Service Office in North Platte, citing reports from a local fire department, said a tornado hit the north shore of the lake, destroying 22 buildings, including homes, and damaging 39 more.

The weather service also said there were numerous trees and power lines down, and a few people had to be rescued from the basem*nts of their homes.

Keith County Emergency Manager David Kling said there was a possible injury from the storm in the Sandy Beach Terrace neighborhood. The man was transported to Sidney Regional Medical Center for treatment.

Despite the damage, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission said Friday that all areas of the lake remain open and all campsites are still available.

The commission said in a news release that crews will be working all weekend to remove downed trees from the north shore and that beach access will be limited because some areas washed out in the storm.

There also was a report of a tornado near Trenton in Hitchco*ck County that damaged trees and power poles and also tore the roof off of the grandstand at a football field.

The office said there were as many as nine tornadoes that touched down in central and western Nebraska, and it had survey teams out investigating the damage Friday.

Elsewhere in the state, high winds from what the Weather Service said was a derecho, caused extensive damage to trees, power poles and some structures.

There were numerous reports of wind gusts reaching 60-80 miles per hour in eastern Nebraska.

In Lancaster County, a wind gust of 60 mph was recorded near Pleasant Dale, while a gust of 66 mph was recorded near Milford in Seward County.

Winds brought down numerous trees and large tree limbs in Lincoln, causing power outages, blocking streets and in some cases damaging homes.

Jodi Holloway said a tree fell on her home near 45th and High streets in southeast Lincoln, taking out a corner of her roof and punching a hole in her living room ceiling. The tree also demolished her deck.

Holloway said she and her husband were awakened about 2 a.m. by sirens and were awake when the tree toppled about five minutes later.

"It sounded like a train whistle and all of a sudden here come's the branches through our ceiling," she said.

Holloway said she has lived in Lincoln since 1986 and has never experienced anything like Friday morning's destruction, but she still feels lucky.

"We're all OK, so it's good," she said

At one point early Friday morning, Lincoln Electric System reported nearly 5,000 people were without power, but power had been restored to everyone by Friday afternoon.

The Omaha Public Power District reported about 2,300 people still without power as of 5 p.m., most of them in Sarpy and Washington counties. At one point, more than 17,000 OPPD customers were without power.

LES said Friday afternoon that it had sent three crews to the Omaha area to help restore power.

The overnight storm system produced 14 tornado warnings across 38 eastern Nebraska and southwest Iowa counties.

The storms produced small, radar-indicated “spin-up” tornadoes that caused the National Weather Service Office in Valley to issue warnings. Spin-up tornadoes, said Becky Kern, a warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service, are very small, tight-circulating tornadoes that can cause tornadic damage to trees and power lines over a very narrow area.

Kern said one spin-up tornado went across southern Saunders County toward Ashland and crossed Interstate 80 south of Gretna. The tornado then went toward Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue before it finally ended southeast of Offutt near Glenwood, Iowa.

City of Lincoln officials reminded people to call the Lincoln Police Department's non-emergency number, 402-441-6000, for trees blocking streets or sidewalks and the Parks and Recreation Community Forestry Section at 402-441-7847, ext. 0, for damage to public trees between the curb and sidewalk.

Residents also can report damage to street trees at UPLNK.lincoln.ne.gov or by using the UPLNK app.

Tree debris on private property is the responsibility of the property owner.

Heavy downpours accompanied the high winds, and many areas that were hit with several inches of rain earlier in the week, causing serious flooding, got more rain Thursday night and Friday morning.

Omaha got another 0.82 inches, on top of the more than 5 inches it received Tuesday, while Wahoo, which received around 6 inches Tuesday, got just over half an inch.

Lincoln, which missed out on Tuesday's deluge, got 0.78 inches early Friday morning.

The Omaha World-Herald and North Platte Telegraphcontributed to this story.