Residents of Pilger, Nebraska had flashbacks to three years ago when a tornado touched down near the Stanton County community on Wednesday afternoon
Back in June, 2014 two tornadoes tore the town apart, leveling homes, businesses and a church. Two people were killed.
On Wednesday Denis and Julie Oswald took shelter in a shed Wednesday as a tornado passed over their farm near Pilger.
Denis had just returned home after a long day of hauling grain when he spotted a funnel cloud forming just above their land.
"I seen what was a white cloud hanging low," Denis told WOWT 6 News. No tornado warning was issued for the area, so Denis called for his wife to see the ominous cloud.
“Just about that fast, it started raining pretty heavy and a little hail come down and the wind picked up a lot,” Julie told WOWT 6.
The couple ran to their shed, turned office, for shelter. They watched from the windows as debris began flying.
“We started seeing lawn furniture flying and pieces of our machine shed here start to go airborne,” she said. “We stayed in our office and my husband said, ‘we’re goners.' And I said, ‘let’s pray,' so that’s what we did."
The tornado damaged trees and some outbuildings. Julie said their house also took a beating from flying debris.
Residents of the community rallied to help the Oswalds clean up Wednesday afternoon. "A lot of family and a lot of neighbors and a lot of people that, actually, went through the Pilger tornado and know what it’s like,” Julie told WOWT 6 News.
There were no reports of injuries from Wednesday’s tornado and Julie says “We’re lucky. I mean, our house is still pretty much standing and all this other stuff is replaceable,”