‘Something that will be with us forever:’ Hallam residents recall tornado, 20 years later

Hallam native Richard Schnieder wasn’t in town on May 22, 2004, but can vividly recall learning his town, built on the very soil his ancestors once tilled, was gone.

He was worried about his family during the storm, particularly his mother-in-law, who was pulled from the rubble after several hours.

“After it was over with, when they finally found her she was laying underneath a glass kitchen table with the refrigerator on top of it,” he said. “The glass never broke and they found an angel statue underneath her that my wife had a collection of. She laid there for five hours.”

She survived the tornado, sustaining cuts and bruises accompanied by a case of pneumonia.

Wednesday marks 20 years since the devastating tornado tore through Hallam, a town of around 250 residents.

That evening an F4 tornado 2 ½ miles wide ripped through the community 20 miles south of Lincoln.

The Hallam tornado was the widest on record, a title it held for nine years.

The twister was on the ground for more than 10 minutes and covered 52 miles.

When the dust settled, the tornado left one person dead and 37 injured.

The tornado was one of 86 that spawned in several Midwestern states that day, with 17 in south central Nebraska alone.

Straight-line winds up to 80 mph were recorded and in the end, property damage exceeded $17 million and another $5 million in crop damage.

A loss for words

Gary Vocasek was at a wedding in Lincoln 20 years ago.

He knew a tornado was in the area when the guests were ushered into the basement, but wasn’t aware the storm had essentially leveled his town.

“My daughter’s friend called about an hour later and asked if we were OK,” he recalled. “She said ‘Yeah, why?’ And he said, ‘Oh God, you don’t know. A tornado hit Hallam.’”

They turned on a TV and heard reports that Hallam was hit. Hard. His wife wanted to go to town, but Vocasek said they’d never get there.

The next option was Norris High School east of town, but they learned the school also sustained serious damage and tornado victims were being bused to Southwest High School in Lincoln.

The family went to Southwest, and waited.

“We were sitting there thinking, ‘What are we going to tell these people?,'” Vocasek said. “We had no idea what they just went through, we had no idea who was coming or how many went right to the hospital. As they got off the bus we just said, ‘Good to see you.’”

When Vocasek returned to Hallam, he found piles of debris where his neighbors once lived. His home was still standing, but was damaged enough it had to be demolished and rebuilt.

“It was strange right after the tornado because you’d be driving down the street wondering who lived here, when you knew who lived there but with the house gone it was just completely different,” he said.

Remembering the past, looking toward the future

You can never be fully prepared for a tornado. Ryan Skillett knows that.

The chief of Hallam Volunteer Fire and Rescue, Skillett said the department of 27 members hosts regular training sessions to respond to any rescue scenario.

“I don’t know what actions the department took back then,” he said. “I’m sure they did everything they could. As a chief that’s one of those things we have to look at. We hope it doesn’t happen again, but if it does, we have available resources with other departments. It’s nothing you can ever plan for. You can train all you want, whether it be a fire, water rescue or tornado, but you’re never ready for it. Never. There’s always something that’s going to be thrown into the mix you didn’t think of.”

Skillett was 22 years old when the tornado struck. He was in Lincoln using the family’s stock trailer to help a friend move when the tornado hit, and said anecdotally it was the only trailer from the area that survived the storm.

“I was in Lincoln helping a buddy move and had grandpa's stock trailer,” he said. “You can imagine when you get a call from your dad nine times wondering where you’re at with the stock trailer because they were trying to find cattle and things. I really had no idea. It was surreal. You can’t even fathom.”

In recognition of the devastating event, the Hallam Volunteer Fire Department is hosting an open house Wednesday at the fire hall, located at 130 S. Harrison St. in Hallam from 5-7 p.m.

Organizers will serve a meal at the event for a free-will donation where people can share their memories. There will be photos of the town on display, in addition to items including a quilt that was gifted to the department after the tornado. Skillett will host a slideshow presentation recounting the storm.

“I don’t want to draw up any PTSD so I'm trying to limit what’s on the slideshow, but it’s just for people to come together, eat, talk and reminisce about that day if they want to,” he said. “If not, they can talk about something else. The town has grown beautifully and it keeps growing, so it’s something they should be proud of.”

Better than it was

Few remnants remain of the town Hallam once was. Vocasek, now the village chairman, describes Hallam as a 20-year-old town.

“There were like 125 houses here when it hit, and 12 survived that are actually still here that were there 20 years ago,” he said. “It’s a different town now.”

He and Schnieder shared memories of Hallam before the tornado, effortlessly recalling how the town used to look.

“Hallam was an old town,” Schnieder said. “I grew up in this area and you look at the town today compared to when I was a young kid, it’s 100% different. A lot of people feel so sorry for your loss and try to express that. Am I standing here talking to you today? That stuff can be replaced. There’s a lot of pictures and records that were lost, but that’s just stuff.”

Rebuilding took years and was a difficult process. But in many ways, Vocasek said the town is better than it was. When the tornado struck 20 years ago Hallam didn’t have a water tower. Today it does, thanks in part to emergency funding.

“A lot of people did a lot of things to make good things happen,” he said. “I hate to say there were good things that came out of the tornado. Some things were done after the tornado, we got some grants and stuff for that helped make the town a better place.”

The Hallam tornado was a tragedy that took years to recover from. The wounds will never fully heal and the memories will never fade for those who called Hallam home 20 years ago. But today, Vocasek is still proud to call Hallam his home.

“The people who went through this, it’s something that will be with us forever,” he said. “25 years ago, you’d see tornadoes and think that was terrible. Now you feel how terrible it is. To the family, friends or just strangers who came to help clean up, we’ll never be able to pay it back, and it will always be appreciated.”