BEATRICE – Winds estimated at between 50 to 70 miles per hour accompanied a fast-moving storm line across southeast Nebraska overnight.

The area was clipped by the southern end of a long, relatively narrow line of thunderstorms that extended across several states.

Power outages were reported northwest of Beatrice, and in DeWitt and Plymouth.  As of four a.m. Monday, Norris Public Power District reported  nearly 350 customers in Gage, Jefferson and Lancaster Counties were without power, and another 170 customers in Saline, Thayer and Seward Counties also lost electricity.

Several counties in southeast Nebraska were under severe thunderstorm warnings, between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m.

According to the National Weather Service, Lancaster County Emergency Management reported a wind gust at Firth, of 72-miles-per-hour during the storm.  Wind gusts topped 60-miles-per-hour in several other locations. 

An empty 500-gallon water tank was blown onto Bruning’s Main Street. 

Some of the wind gusts reported were associated with passage of a cold front…not from the thunderstorm line.  Numerous reports of tree limbs being downed by strong thunderstorm winds were received, along with a few reports of large trees being toppled.  Some empty grain bins were blown over southeast of Grafton, in Fillmore County.