It’s the talk of the town.
From as far as central Omaha, thousands saw the waterspout on Lake Manawa Thursday night.
Fresh video and pictures continue to circulate social media nearly 24 hours after the giant spout of water lifted into the sky.
The cell phone video in this story taken by a dredge crew on the lake, dredger Kyle Krumrie came within feet of the twister.
After putting his phone away, Krumrie retreated to the vessel’s basement.
Tim Tolvstad supervises the 14-person dredge crew and says he saw everything from shore.
After Krumrie went in the basement, Tolvstad says the waterspout circled the dredge.
"Less than 100 feet from the dredge and it came up towards the back of the dredge, veered around the side of the dredge and went out in front of it,” Tolvstad said.
Tolvstad says everything happened too fast to follow tornado procedures.
"Normal protocol is to get everybody off the water and to a safe location,” Tolvstad said. “This just came on so fast without any warnings. There was no time to get the crew off there. They just rode it out. It's pretty safe on the dredge.”
After he realized no one was hurt, the dredge supervisor says he’s grateful he saw the waterspout.
"It was pretty awesome with the way it turned out,” he said. “Normally I wouldn't say that, but to see it and nobody gets hurt, and no damage, it's probably a once in a lifetime sighting.”
Meteorologists differ on how to classify the waterspout.
Some say it was a rope tornado that touched down in Lake Manawa.
Others say it was not technically tornadic, that it was a landspout that rose from the water.
Regardless, we heard reports of fish being found in yards around the lake that were sucked up by the funnel.
