NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) — One person has died and another has been injured in a shooting at an apartment in Norfolk.
Norfolk Police Chief Donald Miller says officers were called Tuesday morning to an apartment, where a woman was being held against her will.
Miller says that as officers entered the apartment, they heard two gunshots in a bedroom.
After officers forced their way into the bedroom, they found two people with gunshot wounds. One person died and the other was taken to a hospital.
By RICK CALLAHAN and GRANT SCHULTE Associated Press
On Tuesday, the U.S. set a new record of 12 consecutive days with at least eight tornadoes, based on preliminary data from the National Weather Service. The previous record for consecutive days with that many tornadoes was an 11-day stretch that ended on June 7, 1980.
“We’re getting big counts on a lot of these days and that is certainly unusual,” said Patrick Marsh, warning coordination meteorologist for the federal Storm Prediction Center.
The National Weather Service received at least 27 more reports of tornadoes Tuesday, suggesting that the record for consecutive days would be broken once the official totals are counted.
The weather service has received 934 tornado reports so far this year, up from the yearly average of 743 observed tornadoes. More than 500 of those reports came in the last 30 days. The actual number is likely lower, however, because some of the reports probably come from different witnesses who spot the same twister.
The U.S. has experienced a lull in the number of tornadoes since 2012, with tornado counts tracking at or below average each year and meteorologists still working to figure out why. Marsh said this month’s uptick is rare, but the country saw similar increases in 2003, 2004, 2008 and 2011 that were highly unusual at the time.
He said his agency is trying to determine why the country is seeing another surge in tornadoes after the quiet spell but doesn’t have enough data to confirm whether climate change or other forces played a role. Scientists say climate change is responsible for more intense and more frequent extreme weather such as storms, droughts, floods and fires, but without extensive study they cannot directly link a single weather event to the changing climate.
“From our point of view, there’s nothing we can definitively say as to why we’re in this current pattern,” Marsh said. “I know people want to make the jump to climate change, but tornadoes are rare in the grand scheme of things, and you need a really, really long data set (to draw any conclusions).”
The recent surge in tornado activity over the past two weeks was driven by high pressure over the Southeast and an unusually cold trough over the Rockies that forced warm, moist air into the central U.S., sparking repeated severe thunderstorms and periodic tornadoes.
“Neither one of these large systems —the high over the Southeast or the trough over the Rockies— are showing signs of moving,” Marsh said. “It’s a little unusual for them to be so entrenched this late in the season.”
Those conditions are ripe for the kind of tornadoes that have swept across the Midwest in the last two weeks, said Cathy Zapotocny, a meteorologist for the weather service in Valley, Nebraska. Zapotocny said the unstable atmosphere helped fuel many of the severe winter storms and subsequent flooding that ravaged Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri earlier this year.
“We’ve been stuck in this pattern since February,” she said.
Zapotocny said the number of tornadoes this year was “basically normal” until the surge this week. May is typically the month with the highest incidence of tornadoes, usually in the Plains and Midwestern states collectively known as Tornado Alley, where most of this year’s twisters have hit.
Most of the confirmed tornadoes were rated as less-intense EF0, EF1 and EF2s on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. But 23 were classified as EF3 tornadoes, with wind speeds of 136-165 mph. The strongest confirmed tornado this year was the EF4 tornado that killed 23 people in Alabama in March.
So far this year, 38 people have died in 10 tornadoes in the United States, including a combined seven within the last week in Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma and Ohio.
The relative quiet in recent years followed the massive tornado that killed 161 people and injured more than 1,100 in Joplin, Missouri, in 2011. The EF5 storm packed winds in excess of 200 mph and was on the ground for more than 22 miles.
Monday’s outbreak was unusual because it occurred over a particularly wide geographic area. Eight states were affected by two regional outbreaks, in the high Plains and the Ohio River Valley.
Tornadoes strafed the Kansas City metropolitan area straddling Kansas and Missouri Tuesday night, barely a week after a massive tornado ripped through the Missouri state capital of Jefferson City.
NEBRASKA CITY, Neb. (AP) — A former Nebraska City clerk who sued after he was essentially fired by the City Council in 2015 has agreed to a $325,000 settlement offered by the city.The Lincoln Journal Star reports that Arnold Ehlers’ lawsuit said the Nebraska City council had retaliated against him for reporting his concerns about the city utilities department’s handling of an account.
Ehlers also said the City Council had acted illegally when it voted not to reappoint him to his position. A judge agreed earlier this year, saying the city acted outside its authority when it put the clerk’s post — which was held by Ehlers and not vacant — up for a vote.
The lawsuit had been set to go to trial June 3.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Strong thunderstorms that raked eastern Nebraska and western Iowa dumped heavy rain and, in southwest Omaha, piles of hail that left some motorists temporarily stranded.
Western Nebraska was first to endure the storms Monday night, with hail larger than 2 inches in diameter reported west of Ogallala. The Omaha World-Herald reported dozens of cars pulled off Interstate 80 with broken windshields. North Platte also received reports of baseball-sized hail.
Early Tuesday morning, the storm moved into Lincoln and Omaha, dropping nearly 2 inches of rain in a little more than an hour. Southwest Omaha also saw large amounts of hail that piled up on streets that brought out at least one city snowplow to clear the mess. About 8,000 Omaha Public Power District customers lost power.
In Council Bluffs, Iowa, a number of streets flooded as more than 2 inches of rain fell there overnight. Flash flood warnings were issued there and for areas around Lincoln and Omaha.
KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — A man shot by a Kearney police officer during a 2016 traffic stop will receive a $300,000 settlement from the city.
The Kearney Hub reports that 36-year-old Jose Klich will receive $290,000 from the city’s insurance carrier and $10,000 from the city of Kearney.
On June 5, 2016, Officer Derek Payton attempted to stop the vehicle Klich was driving and shot at Klich three times, hitting him once in the stomach as he tried to flee. Payton was later charged with felony assault, with prosecutors saying Payton was not in the path of the car when Klich began to drive off. A jury acquitted Payton in 2017.
Klich pleaded no contest to obstructing a police officer and driving under suspension in the case and was given a year of probation.
By ANGIE WANG and JOHN MINCHILLO Associated Press
The winds peeled away roofs — leaving homes looking like giant dollhouses — knocked houses off their foundations, toppled trees, brought down power lines and churned up so much debris that it could be seen on radar. Highway crews had to use snowplows to clear an Ohio interstate.
Some of the heaviest damage was reported just outside Dayton, Ohio.
“I just got down on all fours and covered my head with my hands,” said Francis Dutmers, who with his wife headed for the basement of their home in Vandalia, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) outside Dayton, when the storm hit with a “very loud roar” Monday night. The winds blew out windows around his house, filled rooms with debris and took down most of his trees.
In Celina, Ohio, 81-year-old Melvin Dale Hannah was killed when a parked car was blown into his house, authorities said.
“There’s areas that truly look like a war zone,” Mayor Jeffrey Hazel said Tuesday.
Storm reports posted online by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center showed that 14 suspected tornadoes touched down in Indiana, 11 in Colorado and nine in Ohio. Six were reported in Iowa, five in Nebraska, four in Illinois and three in Minnesota, with one in Idaho.
Monday marked the record-tying 11th straight day with at least eight tornadoes in the U.S., said Patrick Marsh, the Storm Prediction Center’s warning coordination meteorologist. The last such stretch was in 1980.
“We’re getting big counts on a lot of these days, and that is certainly unusual,” Marsh said.
Thunderstorms that spun off the Colorado twisters dropped hail as large as tennis balls, with pea-size hail reported in the Denver area. Nebraska was hit with hail more than 2 inches in diameter, and dozens of drivers pulled off Interstate 80 with broken windshields.
Forecasters warned of the possibility of powerful thunderstorms during the Tuesday afternoon rush hour in the Kansas City area, as well as more bad weather in Ohio.
A tornado with winds up to 140 mph (225 kph) struck near Trotwood, Ohio, eight miles (12 kilometers) from Dayton, and Mayor Mary McDonald reported “catastrophic damage” in the community of 24,500. Several apartment buildings were damaged or destroyed, including one complex where the entire roof was torn away, and at least three dozen people were treated at emergency rooms for cuts, bumps and bruises.
“If I didn’t move quick enough, what could have happened?” said Erica Bohannon of Trotwood, who hid in a closet with her son and their dog. She emerged to find itself looking at the sky. The roof had blown away.
Five busloads of displaced residents were taken to a church that served as a shelter, Trotwood’s mayor said.
Just before midnight, about 40 minutes after that tornado cut through, the weather service tweeted that another one was crossing its path, kicking up enough debris to be visible on radar.
In Brookville, west of Dayton, the storm peeled roofs off schools, destroyed a barn and heavily damaged houses.
Only a few minor injuries were reported in Dayton. Fire Chief Jeffrey Payne called that “pretty miraculous,” attributing it to people heeding early warnings. Sirens went off ahead of the storm.
A boil-water advisory was issued after the storms knocked out power to the city’s pumping stations, and Dayton Power & Light said 64,000 customers were left without electricity. A high school gym in Dayton was designated an emergency shelter until authorities realized it was unusable.
Vandalia’s school system tweeted that it is ending the year two days early because of building damage. In Brookville, where the storm tore off the school’s roof, classes were canceled.
In Indiana, a twister touched down Monday evening in Pendleton, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) from Indianapolis. At least 75 homes were damaged there and in nearby Huntsville, said Madison County Emergency Management spokesman Todd Harmeson. No serious injuries were reported.
Pendleton residents were urged to stay in their homes Tuesday morning because of downed trees, power lines and utility poles.
“People are getting antsy. I know they want to get outdoors, and I know they want to see what’s going on in the neighborhood,” Harmeson said. But he added: “We still have hazards out there.”
Outbreaks of 50 or more tornadoes have happened 63 times in U.S. history, with three instances on record of more than 100 twisters, Marsh said. That includes a deadly April 27, 2011, “super outbreak” of 173 tornadoes. But Monday’s outbreak was unusual because it happened over a particularly wide geographic area and came amid an especially active stretch of tornadoes, he said.
Authorities say charges are pending against a 41-year-old North Platte woman after a crash on Monday evening.
At around 5:00 p.m., on May 27, deputies with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office responded to a two-vehicle crash at US Highway 30 and Front Road, just west of North Platte.
Deputies arrived and found a total of four people injured. All four were transported to Great Plains Health for treatment of their injuries.
Witnesses told deputies that one of the vehicles, a white pickup, was traveling north on Front Road and failed to yield the right of way to a sedan that was eastbound on Highway 30. They reported that the sedan could not stop in time and the two vehicles collided.
The driver of the pickup was identified as Mandy Engler and the drive of the sedan was identified as 70-year-old Dale Styles of North Platte.
Authorities say Engler was suspected of being under the influence of alcohol and a blood test was administered at the hospital. Charges against her are pending, according to the Sheriff’s Office, and all four were left in the care of Great Plains Health.
LEXINGTON, Neb. (AP) – Authorities in south-central Nebraska are investigating the death of a teenage inmate at the Dawson County Jail in Lexington.
The 18-year-old was found unresponsive in his cell Friday night.
Officials say medical aid was rendered to the inmate and he was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy has been ordered.
Neither the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office nor the Dawson County Attorney had released the inmate’s name by midday Tuesday.
Under state law, a grand jury must be convened to investigate whenever a person dies in jail or in the custody of a law enforcement officer.
Kearney police are investigating an armed robbery at a local fast food restaurant.
According to a news release from the City of Kearney, on Monday, May 27, at 11:30 p.m., an unknown male dressed in all black entered the rear doors of the Taco Johns located at 419 East 25th street.
Police say the subject brandished a handgun inside the business and took a small amount of cash before departing.
The case is still under investigation and police are asking for the public’s help to identify the suspect, who should be considered armed and dangerous.
Police are asking anyone with information to please contact Investigator Doug McCarty (308) 233-5260 or Buffalo County Crime Stoppers (308) 237-3424.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts has approved a new $9.3 billion, two-year state budget that will provide extra money to help lower property tax bills.
Ricketts announced Monday that he has signed the new package into law.
The budget calls for a $51 million annual boost to the state’s property tax credit fund, for a total of $275 million a year, nearly double the amount distributed to taxpayers in 2015. With the extra funding, the owner of a $150,000 will get a $106 discount on their property tax bill.
State spending under the new budget will increase by an average of 2.9 percent per year, which is less than the historic average. It also includes more than $2 billion in state aid for K-12 public education.
