4/20/07 DISC: NE

[Darren Addy]

Evening of 4/20, coming home from some shopping with the better-half about 10:00 pm, we saw some pretty intensive lightning to the west of Kearney. So I hopped on Radar and saw three cells moving NE and the southernmost cell was blowing up. Even without zooming in I could see a very pronounced hook as it approached Interstate 80.

Checking some maps, I estimated that it would be near Gothenberg but went to bed without hearing anything about touch-down or damage.

Ryan McGinnis showed up today planning to take damage pics near Gothenberg on our way west today and damage there is. As I write this I'm off the shoulder of I80 and Ryan is taking pictures of a semi and trailer that is upsidedown and smeared into the ditch. Debris from the cracked open trailer is all over the place. The cab is crushed, but no idea about the condition of the driver. South of the interstate we saw multiple farms with damage. Uprooted and broken trees, snapped-off power poles, overturned pivots, shingles blown off roofs, windows blow out/boarded-up in houses. One house must be uninhabitable, as they appear to be moving mattresses (ect) into a semi trailer. Payloaders are pushing debris into big piles.

Could have been worse. This only missed the town of Gothenberg by 2-3 miles (to the west).

 

[Van DeWald]

Darren, it was rated an EF2, with a max path width of 1 mile, path length 12+ miles.

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

Just a heads up that I've posted a few pictures from the damage south of Gothenburg at my blog at http://backingwinds.blogspot.com . I've attached a few of the photos below. The damage was quite extensive, but not catastrophic.

The NWS has an official page about this storm at

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/gid/?n=dawsoncountytornadoofapril20th2007