‘Night of the Twisters’: Grand Island marks 45th anniversary of deadly tornadoes

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — Tuesday marked the anniversary of a historic day in Nebraska: June 3, 1980, when seven tornadoes hit Grand Island.

The tornadoes left a path of devastation and forever changed the way emergency response is handled in the state.

The tragedy claimed lives, tore apart homes, and transformed communities, but it also built a legacy of resilience and reform.

“This is an important day for Grand Island,” Emergency Management Director Joe Rosenlund said. “And I think a lot of our residents are going to be telling this story again. And we should tell the stories.”

Many locals called it the “Night of the Twisters,” which became the name of a book and movie inspired by the events.

“They all remember where they were at,” Rosenlund said. “They all have a story about what happened at home, what happened at work.”

Five people were killed, hundreds injured and an entire community left shaken.

“These weren’t just F1, F2 tornadoes; these were F3 and F4 tornadoes,” Rosenlund said. “Just to have one in the community is devastating, but to have several all occur over a period of 2½ hours, I can’t imagine the kind of psychological and emotional stress that would have put on individuals.”

Grand Island/Hall County Emergency Management said that night led to sweeping changes, more sirens, better radar and faster public alerts.

“We’re seeing better information handed out directly to the public,” Rosenlund said. “In 1980, you didn’t have mobile phones with applications that showed you live radar, you didn’t have automatic wireless emergency alerts sent to phones for tornadoes.”

The city has rebuilt stronger than before, and Rosenlund said his agency is prepared for whatever comes next.

“One of the biggest lessons you can learn from the 1980 tornadoes is just about anything can happen anywhere,” he said. “That was a legendary storm in a very average American town.”