may18cnnreport

Nebraska tornado: Storm-chaser gets up close

Storm-chasers Jeff Piotrowski
and Brian Stertez got within a
quarter-mile of this twister in
southwestern Nebraska on Wednesday.

Wind, snow and rain strike Plains, Midwest

From staff and wire reports

LINCOLN COUNTY, Nebraska (CNN) -- The Nebraska tornado captured on dramatic video by veteran storm-chasers Jeff Piotrowski and Brian Stertez was part of a storm pattern that stretched Thursday from the Colorado mountains to western New York.

Snow closed roads in Colorado and Wyoming, while wind and heavy rain battered the Midwest.

Several states reported broken tree limbs, power outages and flooded streams.

The road closures included heavily traveled Interstate 80 in Wyoming between Cheyenne and Laramie, where up to a foot of snow was forecast by Thursday night, and Loveland Pass in the mountains 70 miles west of Denver.

The pass won't be open until experts check for snowslides.

"Can you believe that? Avalanche control on the 18th of May," said Claudia Lamb, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation.

Twister just a quarter-mile away

Piotrowski is a professional storm-chaser. As reported by the Daily Oklahoman, he spends every May and June following chaotic weather systems and potentially deadly tornadic activity.

On Wednesday, the job took Piotrowski and partner Stertez to southwestern Nebraska, where they shot photographs and videotape of a twister spinning over farmland in Lincoln County.

The pictures show a huge funnel cloud whirling closer and closer to their position, sucking dirt and debris into the air. Momentary flashes of light seen in the video appear to be sparks from downed power lines.

"As the tornado continued to move northwest -- which is unusual for a large tornado like that to move west-northwest -- we thought it was gaining strength," Piotrowski said later.

"The winds were up to 70 to 80 miles an hour at our location," he told CNN from the newsroom of affiliate KOTV in Tulsa, Oklahoma. "At this point, we were probably about a quarter-mile away."

'Huge, boiling mass of absolute black'

The tornado is believed to have spent about 20 minutes on the ground in Lincoln County. While the eight-mile path it traveled was mostly unpopulated, there was some damage and a few injuries.

One farmhouse was leveled and five others were severely damaged by the tornado as it swept across farmland near Maxwell, 13 miles east of North Platte. Two people, Sue Taylor and her daughter Heather, suffered minor injuries.

Sue Taylor said she looked out a window Wednesday afternoon and saw the twister at the end of the driveway.

"It was a huge, boiling mass of absolute black," she told the North Platte Telegraph. "I could see it swirling and moving right toward us, fast."

This pooch, name and owner unknown, survived the Nebraska twister, limping slightly but wagging its tail

Pine tree crashes into borrowed van

More than a dozen tornadoes were reported across Colorado's northeastern plains, but no injuries were reported.

In Greeley, winds uprooted a 60-foot pine and sent it crashing into a van that University of Northern Colorado student Darren Palladino had borrowed from his parents to take his belongings home to Denver.

"My parents weren't too happy when I called them," he said.

Upper Midwest: Heavy rain, hail

In Wisconsin, heavy rain produced flash flooding, swamping streets in La Crosse. In Vernon County, along the Minnesota and Iowa state lines, authorities fearing high water moved 300 schoolchildren who were camping at Sidie Hollow Park.

The children, who attend various Waldorf schools throughout Wisconsin, were taken to a nearby school to spend the night, said Shane Nottestad, a sheriff's dispatcher.

Damage in Lincoln County, Nebraska

Deep drifts of hail piled up in Kasota, Minnesota.

"It was just like a blizzard. It kept going and going and going. First nickel-sized, then pea-sized," said Dale Larson of Door Engineering and Manufacturing.

A flash flood warning was issued for parts of Minnesota after creeks and streams rose 2 feet or more Wednesday afternoon. Mudslides also were reported in the steeper terrain closer to the Mississippi River.

In South Dakota, winds gusting to 70 mph snapped limbs and trees, downed power lines and tore part of the roof off a hotel in Brookings. A trampoline and two boats up for sale were blown across a parking lot.

"It was a surprise to us to see something like a boat blowing across the road because we didn't really see much wind here," said Chris Quinn, who watched as the storm rolled into town. "But when we saw that trampoline coming across the lot, we knew it was pretty strong wind."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.