Beaver Crossing, 1-year after EF-3 tornado

Posted By: Jenn Hatcher
jhatcher@klkntv.com

Exactly one year after an EF–3 tornado ripped through the town of Beaver Crossing, the rebuilding process is still evident. There are piles of wood, boarded up windows and new construction.

Resident Lance Breitkreutz said, “Everybody continues to work, just this last weekend, they were planting more trees in town.”

Breitkreutz’s family lived with friends for four months, after part of the roof was ripped off their home.

“The inside of the house was gutted,” Breitkreutz explained. “A few walls with drywall were left but a lot of water damage.  So, it was a lot of work.”

In the middle of town at Doug’s Dugout, owner, Doug Cunningham, said rebuilding a business, he’d opened just seven months before the storm, wasn’t easy. With a lot of help and determination the bar and grill reopened just 31 days after the tornado hit.

“We rebuilt it together, said Cunningham. “A lot of family came up from, Texas, Iowa, and Lincoln, around the state here, they all came back and they helped us put it back together.”

Every single home suffered some type of damage during the tornado, the estimates are in the millions.

Many can’t believe it’s already been a year.

Breitkreutz said, “It went extremely fast, day by day though, it was long days.”

It was those long days, where a community came together; to show they are small town strong.

A big hurdle for several people was insurance.

They recommend before we get any further into severe weather season, everyone go over their coverage plans.