COLUMBUS, Neb (KMTV) – Strong winds Tuesday night damaged trees and homes in Platte County leading to a massive cleanup job Wednesday.
In eastern Platte County wind damaged corn fields, stalks are bent and there was standing water on fields as of Wednesday evening.
On the outskirts of Columbus the damage is worse. A tree crashed onto a trailer home along Highway 30.
“We started off with two chainsaws now we got about five,” said Devin Gilbert assessing the work ahead of him to remove the tree from his aunt’s home.
“I’m glad my aunt Peggy was in Kansas City at the time,” he said. “Pretty thankful somebody was watching her upstairs.”
The south side of Columbus was hit hardest by the storm that charged through the city about 9:00 o’clock.
“It was so quick and violent. It wasn’t a tornado but it might as well have been,” said Nick Arps as he worked to cut a tree that fell onto a neighbor’s home.
Most trees and limbs missed homes but others fell onto houses and cars.
As people made progress clearing trees from their property the line to get into the local landfill to dump their debris grew extremely long. Wait times stretched past 90 minutes as the line grow to about a mile long.
But for some the task is too big to even start Wednesday. Amber Long says her two kids screamed inside while an enormous tree toppled over in her front yard.
Its limbs stretch across the street and into yard across the street. The tree’s now-exposed roots left a 6 foot hole in the ground.
“I’m just thankful it didn’t call the other way because we wouldn’t have had time to run,” said Long.
