Half a dozen or more homes in the Grand Island area were damaged by a tornado early Monday.
The Hall County Sheriff’s Office deployed a drone that located the damage in southeast Grand Island, heading northwest along Gunbarrel Road.
The National Weather Service has confirmed that an EF-1 tornado, with winds reaching 110 mph, traveled nearly 10 miles after forming 4 miles south of Grand Island just after midnight.
The Hastings Weather Service office said homes were damaged, including blown windows, torn shingles and damaged siding. At least one house has lost part of its decking. In Merrick County, a century-old barn was among the outbuildings destroyed by the tornado.
Some customers in the area lost power due to the storm, Hall County officials said. Power was restored to all but one residence at 11 a.m.
PhotoFiles: It’s a Twister! Nebraska tornadoes throughout history
It’s a Twister!
A tornado picks up debris outside Hebron in 1965. A photographer from the Hebron Register newspaper was able to capture this clear image of the funnel just as it hit the ground.
Star Journal File Photo
It’s a Twister!
A tornado approaches Milford in 1964.
Star Journal File Photo
It’s a Twister!
A tornado rips through the plains southwest of Ord in 1961. Harold Holoun got this photo from his father’s farm.
Star Journal File Photo
It’s a Twister!
Farmer Wallace Peterson took this photo of a tornado 1¼ miles south of his rural Nebraska property in 1968.
Star Journal File Photo
It’s a Twister!
A tornado still in formation approaches a broken down train near Grand Island in 1990. The storm would eventually derail 24 railcars several engine cars away. Note the silhouettes of the two daredevil engineers standing on their machine in the lower left corner.
Star Journal File Photo
It’s a Twister!
It is a tornado in its infancy. This thunderclap near Stromsburg spawned a series of tornadoes in south-central Nebraska in 1968.
Star Journal File Photo
It’s a Twister!
A low, wide funnel cloud dips below the horizon near Auburn in 1963. Witnesses said the cloud was at least half a mile wide.
Star Journal File Photo
It’s a Twister!
It may seem small, but it’s powerful. A funnel cloud contemplates whether it should visit the ground 10 miles west of Nebraska City in 1972.
Star Journal File Photo
It’s a Twister!
One of the factors that make tornadoes so dangerous is the difficulty of seeing funnel clouds before they hit the ground. An incipient tornado is barely visible in this 1977 photo taken in the Walton countryside.
Star Journal File Photo
It’s a Twister!
The same funnel cloud near Walton soon tightened and became more visible.
Star Journal File Photo
It’s a Twister!
This thin tendril of rapidly spinning clouds doesn’t look like much. But its location directly above Grand Island in 1982 was agonizing for the thousands of people who lived there. Fortunately, none of the three funnels of this storm landed inside the city.
Star Journal File Photo
It’s a Twister!
An ominous funnel cloud is seen through torrential rain from 5400 Orchard Street in Lincoln in 1961.
Star Journal File Photo
It’s a Twister!
This undated photo of rural Nebraska was used as an educational tool by the General Adjustment Bureau in New York in the 1980s to illustrate what type of monster could cause such havoc on the plains. These city boys don’t know what they’re missing here!
Star Journal File Photo
It’s a Twister!
A large white devil from a tornado approaches Edgar Klein’s farm in northeast Stromsburg in 1968.
Star Journal File Photo
It’s a Twister!
This photo defies both death and time. Taken from the heart of Hildreth, this tornado touched down and terrorized the town in 1908. The photo is over 100 years old.
Star Journal File Photo
It’s a Twister!
Talk about a near miss. An ominous-looking funnel cloud skirted northern Lincoln in 1975 but never touched down. The photo was taken from the Capitol’s observation deck (not a safe place to be in a tornado). In the next edition of PhotoFiles, we will show you what the Capital could have become if it had landed. It’s true. Next time is the aftermath of the tornadoes. We’ll see you once the storm has passed.
Star Journal File Photo
