Tornadoes and Severe Thunderstorms in Nebraska

The past two weeks have seen severe weather work its way through Nebraska. May 29, Black Thursday according to the Kearney Hub, saw tornadoes rip through the Kearney area spawning tornado warnings, severe thunderstorm warnings, and flash flood warnings for much of central, south central, and southeast Nebraska.

I usually view our weather with an eye toward where family and friends are located, and hoping they are doing okay. The Nebraska towns of Holdrege, Lexington, Hastings, Norfolk, Creighton, Crofton, Martell, Crete, Seward, Milford, Eagle, Bennett, and Omaha keep me interested.

So while I was concerned for the folks in Aurora and Kearney, I thought family and friends were safe. That is, until cousin John S. sent the following photo taken with his cell phone. Turns out he had a group of Lexington athletes with him at a tournament at Kearney Catholic High School while F1 and F2 tornadoes roared through town (though some argue that F3s were involved as well).

Cassie, Eli the cat, and I spent the evening in the basement bedroom. Initially Cassie was unhappy at my plans for she thought I was getting her ready for bed early. But I managed to get her bathed and dressed again in street clothes, socks, and shoes. Then we headed downstairs with important papers wrapped in plastic garbage bags (such as Cassie's adoption paperwork and our paperwork for Daughter #2), flashlights, weather alert radio, books, Cassie's Pooh blankie and stuffed bunny, my purse, cellphone and keys in my pockets, and my meds in my purse. A TV and ac/dc am/fm/cass/cd player were already downstairs.

We had a grand time that evening reading to each other, sorting my fabric onto new shelves (hint for quilters: cd storage units are PERFECT for holding fat quarters, charm packs, and jelly rolls), we did a couple loads of laundry, and Cassie thought it was fun to press the button on the weather alert radio when the alarm sounded. By the time the weather warnings had ended and we came back upstairs, it was passed Cassie's bedtime and I just tossed her into bed. Now she understood why she'd had her bath early.

I spent the rest of the night on the couch, dressed, napping in between weather alerts, ready to drag everyone downstairs again if necessary. The weather conditions didn't calm down until three or four in the morning. But with the weather alert radio at least I was always informed.