Tilden comes together after storm wreaks havoc
TILDEN, Nebr. -- Tilden citizens coming together in community service after a severe thunderstorm downed power lines, ripped roofs, and crashed trees into homes, Friday night.
Much of Tilden spent the day bringing food and labor assistance over to the Schaffer's home, where "Last night we had some high winds come through and two trees were uprooted and fell directly onto the house," Mindy Schaffer said.
Her roof suffered damage as did her wallet -- the insurance said they will not be covering all of it. While she worried about the finances of the damage, her kids called the ordeal was chaotic. They were walking around the house when the massive trees crashed into their home.
But the next morning, neighbors came over with sandwiches and chainsaws to console and help them clean up. Elsewhere in the neighborhood, where winds reached over 60 miles per hour, neighbors came out of their homes to help carry branches and debris out of each other's yards.
Others collected to mourn the loss of a historic church's oldest tree.
"The cost is sentimental," John C. Frey, a longtime member of Our Lady Mt. Caramel Church. This was the second time its property had been destroyed in three years.
Meanwhile, the roof of a business collapsed onto a car, shattering its windshield -- and a few blocks down, a power line ripped the breaker box out of Kristina Gatian's home.
"We saw the tree come completely down then come back up a couple of times and branches fall and my barbeque picked up and flew away," she said. She expects to pay thousands for the damage done inside of her home.
Just hours after that devastating wreckage, more rain picked up in Tilden. While it's not expected to cause as much damage, residents are prepared to support each other through anything.
"This is why we live in small-town Nebraska," Mindy Schaffer said.