Grand Island family tells tale of midnight twister
Local family shares story of taking shelter during Independence Day tornado.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) - Numerous properties are severely damaged after a tornado ripped through portions of Hall and Merrick Counties early Monday morning. One house in particular, belonging to the Kowalski family on A Rd east of Grand Island, had considerable damage.
One of the homeowners and mother of three young children, Meghann Kowalski, said she and her family were in a deep sleep Sunday night after an early Independence Day celebration earlier that evening when she
“...naturally woke up with the worst headache and pressure in my ears, like I was going up a mountain”, said Kowalski.
She then got out of bed to check outside when she noticed the rain seemed to have ended. “The rain had stopped, there was nothing, but there was a hum... you know, you’ve seen the movie Twister, that’s what it sounds like. I stood at the window and there was no rain, there was nothing but it was humming”.
After checking her phone and seeing the alerts from the National Weather Service, she quickly began to wake her husband and children to get them to the basement.
“...by the time I got one kid scooped up all the windows started breaking in, so we quickly got the other two from their rooms and got them to the basement...” said Kowalski.
The Kowalski’s house was taking a direct hit from the twister packing 110 mph winds as she was gathering her kids and rushing to the basement.
“...the glass in the front room was actually broken out before we could get everyone downstairs so we actually had to walk across the broken glass in the living room.” “It was loud everything was popping”.
Kowalski said, “I stayed down in our basement with our kids for the rest of the night while my husband went to check everything out after it calmed down”.
The family’s house had extensive damage to the roof, siding, and garage. A piece of twisted metal siding from a destroyed barn across the road ended up lodged in the rafters of their garage. Their yard was littered with pieces of snapped lumber from a 100-year-old barn that sat across the road, also now completely destroyed. A large piece of wood was found to have been projected by the tornado into the back seat of the Kowalski’s SUV and a piece of wood was found lodged into the siding of their house.
Kowalski said, “we’ve had a busy morning cleaning up, but that’s all we can do”. She remains hopeful and happy that she and her family are safe stating “we’re all okay, everything is fixable. It will take time but we will move on.” She even joked “my kids will have a fun ‘what did you do this summer’ story to tell when they get back to school in the fall”.
The National Weather Service confirms an EF-1 tornado tracked for 9.7 miles through eastern Hall and western Merrick Counties in central Nebraska Monday morning. The tornado had maximum winds of 110 mph.
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