‘It came on all of a sudden’: Beatrice picking up the pieces from severe storm

BEATRICE - Downtown Beatrice is picking up the pieces from an intense storm on a windy, unseasonably warm December day.

The town endured a wind gust of 86 MPH and sheets of intense rain. Now, the streets are littered with downed trees, branches, wires, and widespread structural damage, even downtown. Mark Lewien is the owner of a downtown store front and described his experience with the storm.

“It just came on all of a sudden, it was really weird,” Lewien said. “It was raining from the west, but it felt like it was coming from the east, it was just over as quick as it started.”

Gage County, and several others around the state, went through a series of warnings in the afternoon. The storm hit town just before 3:30. Most of the damage was from downtown eastward, where neighborhood lawns became the mattress to multistory trees, and structural damage impacted some homes and businesses. The Landmark Snacks hiring center believes they may have suffered window damage from a sign hitting their window.

At the time of the storm, Lewien was at the center of the damage.

“I didn’t really know how and it was,” Lewien said. “I thought it was just the awning [across the street], so I called the owners, and then I saw Jim’s Carpet lost the roof.”

Several other towns around southeast Nebraska are also recovering from storm damage and local law enforcement made it clear, with continued strong winds tonight, clean up will take some time. Beatrice is still in a number of warnings, most recently a blowing dust warning.