Kearney, Neb. - Heavy rain fell in northeast Nebraska and tornadoes damaged farmsteads in west-central Nebraska as storms moved across the state Wednesday afternoon and evening.
 

A tornado near Maxwell, Neb., smashed a farmhouse and left behind a jumble of uprooted trees and cars. Two people in the house suffered minor injuries.

In west-central Nebraska, tornadoes were spotted near Wallace, Sutherland, Dickens, Wellfleet, Brady, Maxwell and Tryon. Hail that was pea-size to baseball-size also fell in the area.

The worst damage came in Lincoln County when a tornado, estimated to be a quarter-mile wide, touched down about 5:25 p.m. CDT near Brady, the Associated Press reported. It traveled northwest minutes on the ground 20 minutes, long enough to cover about eight miles. It lifted up about four miles south of Maxwell.

Six farmsteads near Brady and Maxwell were severely damaged. One farm home was destroyed and a farm couple was injured by flying debris near Fort McPherson National Cemetery, said Deb Bertrand, emergency manager for Lincoln County.

"Given the amount of debris around here, it's amazing more people weren't hurt," she said.

The tornado took down trees and at least 50 power lines, taking out electricity for several hours in an area between Gothenburg and Maxwell, Dawson Public Power District Operations Manager Kerry Teetor said.

In northeast Nebraska, heavy rain fell in a relatively narrow band that extended from Albion and Neligh northeast to Norfolk and toward Vermillion, S.D., said John Pollack, a forecaster at the National Weather Service office in Valley, Neb. Many areas in that band had more than an inch of rain, Pollack said, and radar indicated that some spots had 4 inches of rain. Problems from the heavy rain were reported in Petersburg in northern Boone County, he said.

Before 11 p.m., the weather service issued a flash-flood warning for southern Antelope County, which is north of Boone County.

A strong low-pressure system that was moving east along the Kansas-Nebraska border was the cause of the activity, Pollack said. The system was moving fairly slowly, he said, and forecasters expected that it will stay in the region throughout today.

The potential for severe weather around North Platte attracted storm-chasers from Tulsa, Okla., and the University of Oklahoma earlier Wednesday.

"It was a good chase," said Brian Stertz, a Tulsa video photographer who said he tracked four tornadoes in the Sutherland area.
 
 

The University of Nebraska, High Plains Climate Center provides this information as an educational service to the university community.  Please do not further reproduce this report without permission from The Omaha World Herald.