Eighty-One Seconds: The Attack and Aftermath as Tornadoes Hit Pilger, Stanton, Wakefield and Wisner, Nebraska

Eighty-one seconds. That’s all the time it took a diabolical tornado to crash through Pilger, Nebraska, on June 16, 2014, destroying more than 40 percent of its homes plus its business district. Eighty-one seconds. That’s all the time it took for a tornado to destroy farms of the same size on the same day throughout the countryside near Stanton, Pilger, Wisner and Wakefield, Nebraska. Four tornadoes, intent on destruction, were even more infamous that day because two were twins, spawned simultaneously from the same supercell. One charged through Pilger and its sister dropped down to begin its rampage just east of the community. Eighty-one Seconds: The Attack and Aftermath as Tornadoes Hit Pilger, Stanton, Wakefield and Wisner, Nebraska, gives first-hand accounts of the direct hits and near misses of June 16th, along with the aftermath to follow. With information derived from more than 200 interviews with victims, rescuers and volunteers in hand, you’ll see the kind of havoc four tornadoes can produce in 81 swift—but eternal—seconds of time.

LaRayne M. Topp is a lifelong product of Nebraska, residing in the center of land and homes blasted by the tornaodes of June 16, 2014.