A seemingly plain hill in Ryder Park sits near the center of Grand Island, Nebraska. The hill is the tallest in the city it is a popular sledding spot and play area, but its origin is anything but ordinary.
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VO: near the center of the quiet city of Grand Island in the heart of Nebraska is Ryder Park. Cara Dixon plays with her kids here. She has fond memories of the park
Cara Dixon: I grew up at this park. We used to go sledding. Like my entire life has revolved around this park in my grandparents' house that they built right over here.
VO: Ryder is a typical park, with walking paths, playgrounds, and a baseball field… it’s also home to the tallest hill in the city at 40 feet. Amy Gordon used to condition on the hill.
Amy Gordon: when I used to run track, our track coach would make us come here. He would time us running up it and then we would walk down it and we would run up and we would do multiple sprints up the hill to get us conditioned for track season.
VO: the hill is a popular sledding spot in the winter and perfect for stargazing in the warmer months. Edric Lysne watched the solar eclipse from the hill in 2017.
Edric Lysne: we drove eight hours to come here to watch the solar eclipse in 2017. And there was a large group of people on top of the hill and we got to see the totality. It was really incredible.
VO: but for all of the memories made on the hill, it is what' lies beneath that makes it unique.
VO: on June 3rd, 1980, there was a small chance of thunderstorms - only about 20% - but for the approximately 33,000 residents of grand island, life was about to change. Kent Boughton, the chief forecaster for k-h-a-s t-v news 5 in Hastings, Nebraska describes how that night began.
Kent Boughton: and I noticed these low-level clouds almost, uh, you know, they're moving real fast and through the clouds, I could see a cumulonimbus, a monster storm building.
VO: the storm hit just after 9:00 p.m., battering the city and destroying homes and business. The destruction continued for hours and by midnight, 7 tornadoes ravaged grand island.
Kent Boughton: it still goes to the point that it's one of the largest single cell thunderstorms ever recorded in weather history, if not the largest.
VO: across town, Amy Gordon, just 7 years old at the time, was taking shelter.
Amy Gordon: I remember having my brother and I had to go into the basement of our home and my parents threw a mattress on top of us to keep us safe. And we were there. It seemed like forever listening to a transistor radio.
VO: the supercell left over 200 million dollars in property damage, 5 dead and 200 injured. The devastation in grand island that June night would be known as the night of the twisters. The destruction was so severe that a week after that fateful June night the president of the United States Jimmy Carter came to visit and shook hands with citizens at a YMCA and gave some reassuring words
Jimmy Carter : we have approved immediately when the governor requested it an emergency declaration to permit people to survive economically the damage to their property
VO: with all the destruction from that night and the landfill at capacity, the citizens of grand island needed a place to put the several tons of debris. Inspired by a hill in Munich, Germany filled with all of the remnants from the bombings in World War 2, the public works director Wayne Bennett suggested they do the same. Debris was brought to three locations in grand island and burned. The remains were then soaked in water and, using heavy equipment, they brought the debris to the 200-foot diameter excavation site in Ryder Park
Kent Boughton:, they took all that equipment and pushed that up and made that giant hill.
VO: Tornado Hill stands as a memorial to those who died on the night of the twisters over 40 years ago. Dixon was born after the night of the twisters but says that night has impacted her.
Cara Dixon: it's really emotional. I've been through a couple really bad tornadoes myself. So, it's literally like a standing like, like a monument or like a tribute. Um, it carries like a lot of weight in my heart.
VO: Tornado Hill is yet another amazing reminder of how we can turn a singularly horrific night into something that can provide happy experiences to so many future generations.