- Witnesses in Pilger, Nebraska said Monday evening that the prairie village of around 370 residents had been nearly wiped off the face of the earth
- Twin tornadoes measured to have had the fearsome EF-4 rating struck the so-called 'Town Too Tuff To Die' starting Monday afternoon
- Two casualties and 16 critical injuries were reported as afternoon turned to evening Monday. At least one of the victims was a child, though he or she was not ID'd by authorities by late Monday
A deadly duo of massive, relentlessly fast-moving tornadoes rained down terror in northeast Nebraska on Monday evening.
Photos from the tiny town of Pilger, Nebraska show a community devastated after 200MPH winds ripped though and leveled entire neighborhoods, gutted
the town's middle school and destroyed it's Farmer's Co-Op and much of
its farming infrastructure as corn silos crumpled in the face of the
winds.
As
Monday evening turned to night, two casualties had been
reported, with at least 16 critically injured in the area. At least one of those killed was a child.
Scroll down for video...
Victims: Rescue personnel tend to a young
tornado victim in Pilger. A hospital spokeswoman says at least one
person is dead and at least 16 more are in critical condition after two
massive tornadoes swept through northeast Nebraska
'It looks like a war zone': Severely damaged homes and buildings are seen after a tornado on Monday
Stolen livelihoods: Corn silos crumpled in the face of the 200mph winds that decimated Pilger, Nebraska on Monday
Survivors: A man holds a girl after she was pulled from the basement of her destroyed home in Pilger
A huge tornado rips through Nebraska
Drivers risk their lives to escape a damaging 200MPH tornado
Hit like lightning: Tornado cluster in Nebraska has wiped towns off the map
The National Weather Service
continued to warn of possible tornadoes over large swaths of both
Nebraska and Iowa, as well as the flash floods and severe thunderstorms
also birthed by these powerful storm systems.
'I’m standing in Pilger, and I see devastation,' Stanton County Commissioner Jerry Weatherholt told the Lincoln Journal-Star. 'It looks like a war zone. It absolutely looks like a war zone.'
First
responders swarmed what was left of Pilger, but some witnesses
described the gut-wrenching rescue efforts as disorganized at best.
'There are a lot of people around not too much organization,' said Weatherholt.
The initial efforts proved daunting as rescuers were faced with the chaos of near total destruction.
'We're still digging people out,' Stanton County emergency manager Sanford Goshorn told CNN on Monday night.
At least three tornadoes were reported in the area Monday evening, with more potentially to come through early Tuesday.
Two of the menacing storms are believed to have had an intensity of EF-4, which are some of the deadliest and most destructive.
Experts,
some of whom had never seen the double twister phenomenon, made it
clear that the rare occurrence was one for the record books.
'This is a significant storm, and one that I have never seen the likes of, ever. Really,' said Weather Channel severe weather expert Dr. Greg Postel.
American gothic: A tornado forms over a house
near Pilger, which would soon play the backdrop of the day's most
horrific destruction
Lives spared: Tim Nelson searches for survivors
in Pilger, Nebraska. As search and rescue efforts continued, the
official death toll hovered at just one resident
Like God's wrath: A man talks on the phone in
front of tornado-damaged buildings. A swarm of tornadoes, some appearing
two at a time, struck several farming communities in northeastern
Nebraska on Monday
Swarmed: Denis Gentrup, 72,
rests atop his roof while he and others repair it after a tornado hit
his property between Pilger and Wisner Nebraska
Meteorologist
Barbara Mayes says the tornadoes that touched down were about a mile
apart, near the towns of Stanton and Pilger, 100 miles northwest of
Omaha.
While storm
clusters are sometimes seen with multiple tornadoes, usually one is the
dominant storm while the other less powerful twisters rotate around it.
In
an almost unheard of occurrence, the Pilger tornadoes were almost
equally powerful as both were capable of producing 200MPH winds.
'It
was like God dragged two fingernails across the the land,' witness
Gregg Moeller told the Norfolk Daily News. 'Oh my God, the damage is
unbelievable.'
The
titanic storm systems that formed these deadly twisters have also
brought with them into the region golf ball sized hail, severe
thunderstorms and damaging non-cyclonic winds.
'We've
had reports of brief touchdowns as the storms near Sioux City, Iowa,'
National Weather Service Meteorologist Todd Heitkamp told CNN as the
weather system that destroyed Pilger moved on to wreak havoc elsewhere.
'We've
had widespread wind and flooding damage due to the series of storms
that have been ongoing today. We've had reports of up to 4 inches of
rain within an hour in the tri-state area. The main thing is widespread
tree damage,' he said.
Photographer
Brian Davidson was on the ground in Pilger, where he said every
structure he could see for five or six blocks had suffered damage.
Warning: The extent of the twin tornadoes'
damage was still trickling in as the National Weather Service warned
Nebraska and Iowa that more twisters could still be on their way along
with flash floods and severe thunderstorms
Leveled: Pilger, Nebraska was hit especially
hard, as seen by this photo of a leveled home. Storm chasers stopped
photographing after snapping this photo in order to help with rescue
efforts
Two tornadoes approach Pilger on Monday June 16,
2014. The National Weather Service said at least two twisters touched
down within roughly a mile of each other Monday in northeast Nebraska
and there were reports of more and continued threats through Monday
night
Heartland horror: A tornado touches down near
Pilger. Large tornadoes hit rural areas of northeastern Nebraska on
Monday afternoon, with reports of property damage, according to
forecasters and the Weather Channel
Terrifying: This framegrab taken from video
provided by StormChasingVideo.com shows two tornados approaching as they
barrel down on Pilger
Meteorologists report that three tornadoes
likely touched down in northeast Nebraska, with the twin EF-4 tornadoes
doing the most damage. Here, a single twister barrels along US 275 near
Norfolk, Nebraska
'There's no street signs left,' he told Omaha.com. 'Cars are tossed.'
Davidson said he even saw a car inside a home.
'It's very chaotic here right now,' he said.
Pilger's
nickname for itself, 'The Town too Tuff to Die' may seem a bitter irony
now that so much of the village appeared to have been blown away like
dust.
Emergency crews and
residents spent the evening sorting through demolished homes and
businesses in the town roughly 100 miles northwest of Omaha.
‘More
than half of the town is gone - absolutely gone,’ Weatherholt said.
‘The co-op is gone, the grain bins are gone, and it looks like almost
every house in town has some damage. It's a complete mess.’
Victims were taken to three regional hospitals, and at least one had died from unspecified injuries, hospital officials said.
Stanton
County Sheriff Mike Unger estimated that 50 to 75 percent of Pilger was
heavily damaged or destroyed in the storm. The local school is likely
beyond repair, he said.
‘It's total devastation,’ Unger said.
Before and after: Pilger Middle School remained
partially standing after Monday's storm, but appeared completely gutted
by the twister. Students were off for summer vacation. At right, the
school as it appeared before the storm
Barely escaped: A home is seen after a tornado
on Monday in Pilger, Neb. The National Weather Service said at least two
twisters touched down within roughly a mile of each other
Razed: Severely damaged homes and buildings are seen after a tornado on Monday
Unger said five people had to be rescued from a rural home
day care northwest of Stanton. That home was hit just before the storm moved
into Pilger.
Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman declared a state of emergency,
and the National Guard was preparing to deploy to assist local emergency
responders and help with the cleanup. The Nebraska Emergency Management Agency
was expected to arrive in town Tuesday morning.
Pilger was evacuated for the night, and the Nebraska State
Patrol closed all roads into town. Most residents made their own arrangements,
but some were taken to a shelter in the nearby town of Wisner, Unger said.
Tornadoes also caused damage in Cuming and Wayne counties,
the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency said in a news release.
‘We are still in a response mode in these communities,’ said
Earl Imler, NEMA's operations officer. ‘We are collecting damage reports from
local officials on the ground.’
Faith Regional Health Services in nearby Norfolk was
treating 16 patients with critical injuries, and one person had died, said
hospital spokeswoman Jodi Richey.
Providence Medical Center in nearby Wayne treated three
tornado patients, including two who had lacerations, said hospital spokeswoman
Sandy Bartling. Two were released Monday evening, and the third patient was in
stable condition, she said.
Meteorologists with the National Weather Service were also
tracking a tornado near the town of Burwell, in central Nebraska.
Passing through: Onlookers
standing at the Sgt. Floyd Monument in Sioux City, Iowa, watch as a
storm cell passes over the city Monday
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