A storm that started in Wyoming Thursday and morphed into a long, bow-shaped front left damage in its wake of various degrees across Scotts Bluff County.
Activity started to fire up in mid-afternoon, with a storm cell forming in the Hawk Springs area of Goshen County and intensifying as it moved east, with tornados confirmed near Veteran, as well as softball sized hail and 60 mile per hour wind gusts.
Tornado warnings were issued stretching from Huntley and Lyman east-northeast to Morrill , Mitchell and the north central portion of Scotts Bluff County. Severe thunderstorm warnings were issued and expanded covering most of the county as the storm transitioned to a bow-shaped line with a leading center, a shape often associated with a derecho.
Passage of the storms left varying degrees of damage, with perhaps the most severe in a swath from near Lyman to Morrill and Mitchell.
One home in the Lyman area was known to have had all of its siding pock-marked with hail damage and numerous broken windows. High voltage lines fell across Highway 92 and several county roads, many of those with standing water, forcing road closures with barricades.
Additional damage observed by KNEB News included overturned irrigation pivots, a barn blown apart and trees toppled by the wind.
Several empty coal cars on a siding just west of Mitchell laid on their side, the Schmidt Sales building farther west was destroyed, and nearly every tree around a nearby house was either on the ground or the house itself.
Torrential rainfall accompanied the storms, with a number of streets flooded, including much of Broadway in Scottsbluff and those adjacent to the west. In some locations, the water over-topped sidewalks.
Power outages were also wide-spread but somewhat spotty, depending heavily in damage to the area. NPPD said as of about 8:30 p.m., approximately 927 customers were out in Scottsbluff, another 190 customers out in the rural area outside of town. Grant Otten said 544 customers in Terrytown had just had their service restored about a minute ago and a handful remained without power in Mitchell.
