The scene was really something -- it's amazing how far tornadoes can spread debris. There were front end loaders all over the place picking up sheet metal and lumber and the like out of the fields hundreds of yards from where the debris originated from. The cleanup effort was huge, with at least 30 people and 5 pieces of heavy construction equipment helping out.
Below are the photos that I shot. Click to enlarge.
A snapped tree atop a home's roof south of Gothenburg.
All the windows in this SUV were blown out.
Damaged house.
Lumber from a damaged house embedded in the window of a pickup truck. The truck's windows were shattered.
Damaged tractor trailor.
Damaged tractor trailor.
Damaged, mud-caked truck, at the edge of a field, with a debris field in the background.
Tire swing (for fun framing), with damaged house in the background. Basically, a hole is blown in the kitchen area.
Another through the tire.
This is a tractor trailer alongside I-80 near some snapped trees in the path of the tornado. I assume the driver made it out okay, since I didn't read any news stories about truck driver injuries. The cab was really smashed up, though.
While it's unfortunate that homes were damaged and people were injured, Gothenburg really, in my opinion, dodged a bullet on this one -- on a freak, unexpected supercell, no less.
3 comments:
Journal-Star article (online) says: "John Johnson, chief executive officer at Gothenburg Memorial Hospital, said nine people injured in collisions or when their vehicles were blown over were brought to his emergency room. One was taken to a trauma center in Kearney and the others were treated and released."
I'm betting the trauma case was the truck driver, judging by the condition of that cab. Yowzah!
Scary... my grandmother lives there... I did not even know that there was a tornado there until I read this.
Have you ever seen a tornado?
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