One month after tornado, Waterloo survivor talks rebuilding ‘historic’ barns

WATERLOO, Neb. (WOWT) - Friday marked four weeks to the day since Gail Pitzl and her family climbed out of their house and saw the destruction the tornado left on their property south of Waterloo.

Days later, she watched as the remains of two old barns destroyed in the storm were burned.

“May 1, 1993 was the day that we signed the papers and got the keys to the property, and May 1, 2024, they lit a match to it,” Pitzl said. “So I will never forget that day.”

Pitzl told 6 News homeowners insurance will cover the house but will only take care of part of the other structures on the property, including the two barns.

“One of the next steps is trying to come up with creative ways to raise money to rebuild at least those two barns back because they’re part of our history and the valley,” she said.

The Douglas County Historical Society said President Franklin Roosevelt visited the property back when a farmer named Gus Sumnick owned it.

Sumnick’s granddaughter visited the property after the twister hit. It was her first visit in years.

“It was horrible,” Julie Ury said. “I haven’t cried like that since my daddy died. I saw it, I just couldn’t handle it.”

Pitzl gave her some old relics recovered from one of the barns, including a milking stool and bridle the Sumnick family used to use.

Ury hopes Pitzl does rebuild the structures as they were.

“We’re going to take the 10% value insurance policy and make it stretch as far as we can,” Pitzl said.

However, she also has to worry about her house. She said the insurance company hired crews to take items out of it for “tornado contamination.”

“Which carries water, chemical, as well as glass, dust and other debris,” she said. “So they haven’t determined what I’ll be able to keep and what is a loss in the house.”

On top of that, her family is waiting for the insurance money to come in and is working with contractors on what they’ll replace the buildings with. They have no quotes at this time.

Pitzl added the property doesn’t qualify for FEMA assistance because they had equipment for their business there when the tornado hit.

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