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Severe weather swept through the area Tuesday night. The hardest impact was near Papillion and Bellevue. Homeowners spent Wednesday picking up the pieces of what was left behind.
Residents said as if dealing with the drought was hard enough, after Tuesday night’s weather, it felt like salt in the wound of this summer’s weather pattern.
A tree was leveled and cut into pieces after crashing through the Dillon home just south of Olde Town in Bellevue. A machinery shed blew over the fence into a homeowners' yard. Michael Mendolia from Bellevue Glass and Mirror spent his morning cutting up the pieces as well. "We are doing a lot of windows around here and cleaning up this mess for the trailer court."
At least for the next few days, Mendolia will stay busy with cleanup. "Yeah, busy time right now, storms will get ya,” Mendolia said.
In Papillion, a street sweeper chewed up debris that littered roads in the neighborhood. Evidence left behind of strong winds that blew through the area with more trees downed.
In Marvin Dietz's back yard, it was a close call. "I was sitting on the patio, a branch came down, I went in the house, I was in there about two minutes, the branch came down right on top of the chair," Dietz said. He was sitting in a chair, the branch bent plastic and Dietz escaped without a scratch.
Another tree in Dietz's yard fell over the fence, cracking the wood. A Chinese Elm will become firewood at his cabin.
A few streets over, Larry Torpy and his tree service were out early Tuesday. Torpy described the type of morning they had cleaning up. "Once we hit this street it looked like a tornado had hit it. It looked like it missed everywhere else and did everything on this street, branches all over the street."
In Papillion, the tree debris drop-off site is open to the public. You may go to the River City site near 96th and Portal Road. The gates will be open through Sunday. Bellevue didn't suffer as much damage so residents can lay out their tree debris with the rest of their yard waste.
