"We're feeling like it will probably end up somewhere between 40 and 50 million dollars worth of damage out there,” said Mayor Jim Raelph.
Almost a year and a half after a hail storm pummeled the town of Blair Nebraska, the cost of repairs continues to add up. One of the hardest fixes and most costly was the Washington County Courthouse.
“This building was built in 1889 at a cost of $50,000. Now we have spent over a million dollars on repairs,” said Carl Lorenzen.
Baseball-sized hail started falling on June 3, 2014. Not long after came rain and 90 mile per hour winds. The courthouse quickly filled with water and broken glass.
“The glass was through the entire office all the way to the door, it was everywhere,” said someone who works at the courthouse.
Maintenance Superintendent Jesse Gonzalez says a crew went to work during the storm to try to preserve the more than century old courthouse.
“We were here until 2:45 in the morning boarding up windows from the inside, then the next day started boarding up from the outside,” said Gonzalez.
All the windows and carpets had to be replaced. The hardest fix was the cupola on top of the courthouse.
“It was a monumental task to try to bring it back to its original condition,” said Lorenzen.
Carol Lorenzen, a member of the board of supervisors says almost 13 tons of scaffolding was used at the courthouse. Today, there is barely any left.
“Now that we have all that scaffolding down and everything sealed up, we're just ready for the new shingles to be put up,” said Lorenzen.
The courthouse is now more than 90 percent complete. Gonzalez admits he wondered if they would ever get it done.
“It was hard to find a starting point where we knew we'd be able to continue on to something else. You know, it's like where do you even start,” said Gonzalez.
But they started and now they’re almost finished.
“It looks better than it has for years and years,” said Lorenzen.
