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Wednesday morning storm brings
commerce to a halt on Lincoln’s west side
[April 02, 2025]
It happened in just a matter of
minutes.
The skies throughout the morning
had been gray and dreary in Lincoln, then suddenly it seemed that
the wind changed, in some areas the rain came down in sheets, while
it others it did not, and instead of seeing birds in the sky,
witnesses were seeing pieces of buildings flying through the air.
On the city’s west side, power
poles were taken out and electricity was disrupted to area
businesses as well as West Lincoln Broadwell School.
At Farm and Home Supply, roofing
material from atop the building was picked up and strewn over a very
large area. There were sheets of roofing flying through the air to
the north side of the building, and large piles of material that
landed against the north side of the building, landing on the
display of lawn power equipment. At the same time, materials were
flying to the southeast, leaving a path of debris that cut a trail
from behind the store, across the green space behind St. Clara Rehab
& Senior Care and then on over to the street and parking areas
adjacent to Lincoln Memorial Hospital.
Traffic lights were out from
Lincoln Parkway west, and it was odd to see not a single customer at
McDonald’s on the east end of the thoroughfare to Cracker Barrel on
the far west end.
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At Cracker Barrel there were a
couple of trees that had been sheered.
And over at Becks and Arby’s, the
exterior damage didn’t look all that bad, but inside the Arby’s, the
ceiling gave way and scattered insulation and other debris into the
guest area.
And, perhaps one of the most
dramatic scenes was found at the Eaton manufacturing plant on the
north side of Lincoln along business loop 55. A large portion of the
building’s roof was peeled like a banana and laid over on top of the
roof of another portion of the building.
By slightly past 1:30 Ameren Crews
were out in force working to restore the electric poles that had
been taken out on Woodlawn and bring power back to the community.
There were various other reports throughout the afternoon. A small
portable motorcycle shed was lifted from its spot between a house
and garage and thrown over the house to land in the street about a
block away.
There were several reports of tree damage, and also reports of
difficulties on Interstate 55.
[Nila Smith with photos by Smith & Ethan
Hoinacki]
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