An storm blasted North Platte in the wee hours of Saturday morning, especially the east side of the city, knocking down trees and damaging buildings.
An entire steel storage building blew down in the back lot of Mead Lumber near Sixth and Eastman. The roof ended up on top of a house across Eastman St.
The homeowner, Marla Cadena, said it sounded like a bomb going off when a large section of the building hit her roof around 3 a.m.
Workers from Beveridge Construction cleaned up the debris Saturday.
About a block east of there, a steel tower atop a building blew down, tearing down power lines when it fell. The property is a storage yard for the city of North Platte.
A few blocks north at 716 E. 10th, a large tree in the front yard blew over, narrowly missing an RV and two homes to the east. Part of the tree fell onto 10th St. City workers came out in the middle of the night to clear the street, neighbor Nathaniel Beckius said.
The National Weather Service in North Platte said the damage was the result of a wet micro-burst with wind speeds of 75-100 mph.
A microburst is a localized column of sinking air (downdraft) within a thunderstorm (see graphic.) Microbursts can cause extensive damage at the surface, and in some instances, can be life-threatening, the weather service said.
At the Opportunity Center on Fifth and Bryan, a massive cottonwood tree blew over, crushing the back of a steel building. A crew from Weaver’s Tree Service went to work on the clean up Saturday morning.
Part of the roof was damaged on the east side of TJ Maxx near E. Philip, forcing the store to close temporarily. It is expected to reopen Tuesday. Also, some hanger doors were damaged at the North Platte Regional Airport.
The weather service recorded a third of an inch of rain at the airport in the storm. That was in addition to an inch of rain in a downpour Friday afternoon around 4:30 p.m.
Kristi Smith of the Bulletin contributed to this report, which was clarified and corrected on June 23.
Photos: Saturday afternoon, by George Lauby, Kristi Smith and Aaron Kelly. Tap images for full view.
Two mature trees were uprooted in Memorial Park.
The weather service said the damaged area included the airport.
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TJ Maxx has been closed every day since the storm damaged their roof.