Dear Governor Jim Pillen, Sutton, as you may know, has been dealing with, and going through a tough challenge over the course of the past four months. We’ve been dealing with the aftermath of an EF-1 tornado that shook, beat up, and damaged many areas of this small South Central Nebraska community.
As I write this open letter to you, I mostly represent just myself, as I’ll never speak for others in an open opinion, but my gut feeling tells me that as I write this, and after the other businesses and homes that have been left “crippled” by this “little storm,” have read this, many may just jump on board with my letter to you.
From the time that the storm hit our little town, on July 29, 2023, to today, Sunday, Nov. 19, it’s been a long and grueling 114 days since the early morning “teeny tornado” left a path of destruction.
The north end of our business district, where in many cases are “crippled,” were forced to seek shelter for the long-haul inside other businesses. As a supportive small town will do, in the Nebraska way, many businesses that were able to remain in their buildings opened their doors to those of us who were forced to evacuate, and leave our damaged buildings behind, in hopes of figuring out a way to repair and improve our 120-year old buildings.
This newspaper, published weekly, has sought shelter inside of the Sutton Police Department’s office space since early August, thanks in large part to our police chief, Tracey Landenberger. Thank you Tracey.
I reach out to you today in hopes that you could reach out to us Suttonites, make a visit to us, and have an open conversation with our progressive community.
As you can imagine, it’s made it extremely hard to continue to be progressive, when many of us have been displaced from home base, and are working out of temporary locations.
Many of our businesses that have been impacted by this storm are finding it hard to make ends meet, for the most part, because our downtown main street was forced to be closed for the better part of 13-14 weeks, shutting down easy access to the businesses that were able to remain open. Fiscally, it’s been a real challenge for all of us.
All but two businesses, located on the west side of North Saunders Avenue remain “locked up,” and displaced, which as you can imagine, not just as our governor, but also as a business owner yourself, is adding stress on all of us.
Our golf course took on heavy damage to many of its cart sheds, and maintenance shops, not to mention the loss of trees and ground damage, caused by blowing debris.
Homes have also suffered damages, with a few still displaced out of their homes.
In typical small-town fashion, we have some fantastic people that have given those still displaced from their homes temporary shelter until a permanent fix can be made to their homes. I reach out today in hopes that not only can you come to our little town for a visit, but that you can also help us get access to some disaster relief assistance that might be able to help us return our historic downtown business district to it’s original state, or at least as close to original state as financially possible.
Many of us are still dealing with insurance stress, of which we worry that our insurance compensation might cause many of us to fall short of restoring our historic district to what it was prior to this “little tornado” that left long-term and life changing damages to our livelihoods.
In tough times, we all stick together, and you as our statewide leader, we plead with you to visit, discuss, and help us find a way to start healing from this damage in the form of disaster relief in some form or other.
The entire group of business and building owners in the damaged area are together as one. We’ve recently met together, and with our city leaders and collectively want to move forward with returning our community back to what it was on July 28, 2023, and heal the damaged buildings left by the July 29 storm.
We’re all worried, beyond worried for that matter, that if we can’t return our business district to as close to it’s original state, prior to this storm, that Sutton could very well lose it’s historic identity, thus hurt the community, as a whole financially, in some ways that could very well “close up shop” for some, destroy the west side of our north business district, and leave a lasting scar that could ruin the soul and heartbeat of this community that I’ve been a part of for nearly 16 years, in the capacity of the managing editor of the Clay County News.
Respectfully submitted, Tory Duncan
