Tornado hits farms
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June 16, 2022
Four grain bins are pictured at the David Mussmann farm south of Ruskin. The tornado which touched down last Tuesday evening damaged all four. Two can be seen in the foreground against a barn and a storage container. Upper rings were damaged on the two in the background. The tornado also heavily damaged two irrigation pivots southeast of the farmstead. One appeared to have rolled, the second rolled and twisted. The Mussmann farm house sets about 200 feet from the grain bins that were totally destroyed. The house was not damaged.
Last Tuesday evening the Nebraska Weather Bureau issued a tornado warning when a radar indicated rotation over Ruskin.
"My heart sank when I heard it!" Ryan Mikkelsen, a Ruskin area farmer, said.
Tuesday morning, Ruskin residents awoke to streets littered with tree limbs and leaves, but there was no reports of damaged buildings.
Ruskin residents and the surrounding community rolled out their four-wheel and trailers - both big and small and farmers arrived with larger tractors trailers an grapple forks. By late afternoon, all the streets were clear and nearly all the yards.
The David Mussmann farmstead three miles south of Ruskin was not so fortunate. Two grain bins near the farmhouse, about 200 feet from the front door, were picked up off their foundations and heaved against the barn and over a storage container.
A semi-trailer truck setting by the bins was not damaged and on Wednesday a buyer arrived to take delivery of the truck.
Several upper rings on a 50,000 bushel grain bin and a 35,000 bushel bin were also damage.
Doors on some of the other out buildings were either missing or damaged.
Southeast of the farm two irrigation pivots were damaged. The worst was one mile south and a half mile east.
"We were fortunate," Mussman said. "There is very little debris scattered through the fields."
A related story on this page gives more details about the storms which developed on Tuesday and Saturday.
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