For the second time in as many years, severe weather has left Callaway residents facing devastation and a massive cleanup. It has also left the townspeople very thankful. Thankful no one was hurt, and thankful for good neighbors.

“It was just amazing seeing not only people from Callaway but people from the neighboring towns all pitching in to help clean up,” said Callaway resident Amber Ross at the end of a full day of hard work. She said she was awakened during the early morning hours by the wind, but that wasn’t the case with everyone. “I had several people tell me they woke up because they could feel the sudden change in pressure.”

I caught up with Ross at about 8:30 Saturday evening as she stood in the street conversing with others in the neighborhood about the day’s events. They had all chipped in to help move trees from the streets and clean up debris from one another’s yards. All around town, 16 hours after the damage occurred, pickups and trailers and people were everywhere. There was still lots of work to be done.

It was shortly after 4 a.m. on Saturday, July 29, when the storm came blowing in - literally. Village resident Herb Gentry stated that he received an alert on his phone of a severe storm approaching Callaway, and after last summer’s massive hail storm, he ran outside to cover the windshields on his vehicles. “It wasn’t 10 minutes later and it hit,” said Gentry.

The storm rolled through quickly, and as the sun arose over the sleepy Custer County village the devastation came into full view. Large trees were completely ripped from the ground and toppled with the roots pointing to the sky. Limbs, branches, and leaves littered every street and yard - some streets were completely impassable. The entire community was without power.

A press release issued by the National Weather Service in North Platte late Saturday afternoon stated, “A storm survey was conducted in conjunction with Custer County Emergency Management. Widespread tree damage was observed in and near Callaway with an estimated 100 trees uprooted or snapped in half just in Callaway alone. Damage was observed to buildings, both residential and commercial, as well. The damage was a result of straight-line winds from thunderstorm overflow.”

According to the NWS, peak winds with the storm were an astonishing 100-110 mph. The path of damage was approximately 10 miles long, running from Callaway to two miles northwest of Oconto, and approximately three miles at its widest. The storm was in the area for only 20 minutes, from 4:20-4:40 a.m.

As word began to travel of the damage left behind, help began to arrive. Side dump trucks and payloaders were even on scene as the morning progressed to help move the large downed trees. The sound of chainsaws filled the air. People came out of their homes and immediately began checking on neighbors to make sure everyone was ok. That, after all, was most important.

“There’s a lot of widespread damage, everybody seems to be all right, that’s the best part. We can fix the other stuff,” resident and Callaway Chamber President Ken Pitkin shared as he offered a quick interview with KCNI/KBBN News Director Grant Winterer while on scene surveying the damage.

“The storm woke me up and I was looking out the window, and I knew it was going to be bad,” said Callaway Utility Superintendent Rod Brestel. “Once the storm let up we got to work.”

Brestel said the line coming into the substation that feeds Callaway from the Custer sub was out, causing a village-wide power outage. “We found a couple of tree branches were laying across a couple of phases that were causing us problems,” said Brestel. The crew worked to get the majority of community residents back on by early Saturday morning.

“After that, there were still some spots without power, and we were out trying to clean those up until 10:30 Saturday night. We had probably 95 percent of the power on by that time,” Brestel said. They went back to work first thing Sunday morning and by 6 p.m. Sunday, power had been restored to all residents.

“I don’t think I’ve seen anything like this happen in the 35 years I’ve been here,” Brestel added.

Even though he had his hands full with getting power back to the village, Brestel said he noticed all of the people and equipment arriving in town to help. Callaway Public School opened its building to allow people to take a break out of the heat or to charge their devices as the building was able to operate with generators.

The weather is always unpredictable in Nebraska, and Brestel stated “You never know when the next one will hit.” One thing, however, is certain; when the trials come, so do the helping hands.