Pilger: Where survivors are today

Posted by: Vanessa Brown
vbrown@klkntv.com

One year ago Tuesday, a monster storm spawned dueling twisters that left a Northeast Nebraska town nearly demolished. About 75% of Pilger was wiped out. Several people were injured. Two people in the area were killed, with many more left picking up the pieces of the life they once knew.

On June 16th, 2014, the little town “too tough to die” was devastated by two EF4 tornadoes. It’s been 365 days of blood, sweat and tears for the village. Chairman Jim Duncan was right in the middle of it then, losing the only home he’d known since 1945. And now, rebuilding, like so many others.

Duncan has been renting in nearby Wisner, waiting for the day he can finally come home. His new house, at the site of his old, is almost finished. It’s one of seven being constructed by the Mennonite Disaster Service.

“It’s nice, it’s nice, it’s better than like we’d saw our other house go, looking from the underneath and it went away,” Duncan said, remembering that difficult day that landed him in the hospital.

This time around, he plans to buy a safe room.

Meanwhile, his next–door neighbor of 22 years, Larry Nelson, left his now-vacant lot for another home in town. Without a basement, he had taken shelter at another neighbor’s home the afternoon of the storm. He lost everything.

“It’s probably 125 years old and the windows were all broke out,” Nelson said of his new place.

With help from family and friends, Nelson fixed it up, keeping his friendship with Duncan and making new ones along the way.

“There’s one of the neighbors. She makes me cookies she brings over every once in a while,” he said, pointing toward a friendly face in Pilger.

Also new? A small storm cellar, built beneath his home, he now calls his own.

As for the village, piles of cement still linger, but the water tower still stands strong.

Each neighborhood block tells a different story. Some homes, spared by the storms, left their owners feeling the burden of guilt every time they see the rubble.

“They carry that weight on their shoulder, that why was my house okay.. why was this family’s house taken? Said Village Clerk, Kimberly Neiman.

Neiman has seen it all. In fact, she’s been supervising. She’s been the village clerk for 18 years. She’s a firefighter–EMT and was the first responder who first spotted the twisters and called them in.

“Everybody says how you describe a tornado.. angry, it was huge!” Neiman said.

She too, lost her home that fateful day.

“It was one of those things where, okay the house is gone, I can’t do anything about that, so let’s go see what I can do something about,” she said.

Neiman sprang into action then, organizing emergency crews and gathering water. She’s been the town’s rock ever since. People there can’t say enough good things about her.

“She’s the most wonderful person that ever hit Pilger,” Duncan said.

“I take care of everybody before I take care of myself and that’s always been my nature and I think God made me that way so I could take care of this,” Neiman said.

The older generation has been so willing to help their neighbors out. Many, desperately hoping that tradition carries on.

He who has no pride in the past, has no future, so us older generation took care of the old Pilger, now it’s going to have to be the younger people to take care of the new Pilger.

People like Chris Deering are up for the challenge. He and his wife moved to Pilger four years ago and they plan to stay.

“We’re trying to get our friends to come here too. We’re just as excited as everybody else is to see the town coming back. We’re not going to go anywhere. We want to see the new version of Pilger now,” Deering said.

365 days ago, Pilger had a population of 352. At its low point – 160. Now it’s up to 197 and growing.