Tornadoes and Flash Flooding in Nebraska, June 19, 2000

After weeks of little or no rain, thunderstorms unleashed a torrent of rain, hail and high winds across much of south-central Nebraska. The thunderstorms developed west and north of Kearney and moved east and southeast throughout the evening.Early in the evening, severe thunderstorms pummeled the Johnson Lake area of northern Gosper county. Winds of 75 mph tore apart trees and downed power lines. Hail teamed with the wind to break several windows of homes around the lake. The storms pushed east into western Phelps county producing a brief tornado that was sighted in the northwest part of the county. No damage was reported. Over 5 inches of rain fell in western Phelps county along with walnut sized hail. There was considerable damage to both corn and bean crops.At nearly the same time, thunderstorms raged across Valley county. Near total devastation of the corn and bean crops was reported west of Ord. Baseball sized hail fell in the Ord area itself. Agricultural losses in the Ord area alone totaled over 5 million dollars. Roof and siding damage was reported in Ord along with damage to several vehicles due to the large hail. A tornado was spotted northeast of Arcadia. No damage was known to have occurred from this brief tornado.As the evening wore on, a large supercell thunderstorm moved east along U.S. Highways 6 and 34 from east of Holdrege to the Hastings area. Blinding rain, hail and some funnel clouds were spawned from this storm. In Kearney and Adams counties, 3 to 5 inches of rain fell in about one hour near Heartwell and Kenesaw. Several county roads were washed out or were impassable due to flooding. Water was flowing over U.S. Highways 6 and 34 for a time. Again, the corn and soybean crops sustained considerable damage. A grain bin was damaged in the Holstein area and several tree limbs fell in the strong wind. In northern Franklin county, hail and wind damaged 60,000 acres of crops. Producers in the county were expected to lose at least 4 million dollars from this storm.