Alvo elevator collapses; second one likely to be demolished

ALVO — They said it started with a slow rumble. Then Rusty Anderson thought two semis collided.  Beth Rose assumed her sister-in-law tipped over the excavator.

When her brother told her the town’s grain elevator collapsed, she looked outside at the mess of concrete and metal and confirmed it.

“Yeah, there used to be two of them,” she said.

The towering Alvo Grain elevator, the centerpiece of this small Cass County town northeast of Lincoln, collapsed without warning at about 11 a.m. Tuesday, crashing into an adjacent silo. Structural engineers were determining late Tuesday whether the second tower would need to be brought down.

Anticipating the second tower could not be left standing, officials had requested a crane be brought to Alvo from Manhattan, Kan. The crane will not arrive until sometime Wednesday at the earliest.

Three men augering soybeans from the first elevator into a truck took off running when they saw chunks of concrete break off from the elevator. Neither they nor anyone else was hurt in the incident, but the second silo’s instability prompted officials to evacuate about 10 nearby homes.

Nebraska 63, which runs through the town and adjacent to the elevator, has been closed, along with some nearby county roads.

Bobby Hanes Jr., son-in-law of Alvo Grain owner Gordon Ganz, was one of three people unloading soybeans out of the concrete silo when they saw parts of its walls give way about 11 a.m.

“We were moving grain and the bin collapsed,” Hanes said.

Those in the unloading crew were next to a truck and grain auger about 30 feet away from the 110-foot tall structure when it started to come down.

“We took off running,” he said.

The debris fell against the twin silo next to it and Hanes said it was uncertain if it was structurally sound.

The fallen silo had contained perhaps 40,000 bushels of soybeans and was half to two-thirds full. Hanes speculated an air pocket in the grain pile may have collapsed just before concrete started to tumble.

“We think the grain coming down had put some pressure that started pushing out on the bin,” he said.

Hanes said what happens next with the business is uncertain. In early April, Ganz filed for bankruptcy and the Nebraska Public Service Commission took possession of the grain inventory.

“The insurance (company), the state and the bankruptcy court will get together and see what happens next.”

The shutdown of operations in April came at a time when prices for corn, soybeans and other crops had reached prices that were at or near historic highs, and many elevators across the state were experiencing cash flow problems.

So far, although prices remain high, the grain outlets owned by Gordon Ganz at Alvo and Ashland are the only ones to reach a point where the management voluntarily relinquished its operating license.

Area farmer Bob Rickli, an Alvo customer who was among those monitoring the day’s events Tuesday, marveled that there were no deaths or serious injuries.

“You don’t ever hear concrete cracking and get out,” he said.

Hanes was in no mood to disagree. “Yeah, everybody was really lucky,” he said. “We’re thankful we caught (sight of) concrete falling when we did.”

Neighbors and others said the elevator collapse caused a loud boom, shook windows and startled residents and dogs.

Anderson, an Alvo firefighter, was watching his two nieces at his house, about 120 feet away from the elevator.

“They didn’t think anything of it,” he said of the girls.

In Rose’s home, about 1,300 feet east from the collapse, six of the nine still lifes fell from the walls.

“It just rocked the house,” she said.

Her brother, Brent Rose, and his wife, Tina Rose, were working at B-Rose Transportation, Beth’s scrap metal business, at the time of the collapse.  Tina Rose was outside.

“I saw it start to go down,” she said. “It went fast.”

She and her husband headed for the structure as it fell, thinking that someone was surely trapped underneath. Instead they saw a group of men who must have had close calls.

“There was eight pale-looking gentlemen, so I’m sure all eight of them were there,” Brent Rose said.

Roger Root, who operates Mel’s Mini-Mart with his mother, Blanch, said he understood about 10 homes closest to the elevators had been evacuated, displacing “maybe a couple dozen people.” To his knowledge, most of the people were staying with friends or relatives. A Red Cross disaster van from Kansas City, Mo., already in Nebraska to help tornado victims, arrived in town about 5 p.m.

Root, whose convenience store is about four blocks from the elevator, said he didn’t hear any noise when the collapse occurred.

Root said the elevator’s demise brought down Internet service to the town. A 2005 Lincoln Journal Star story reported how a four-year effort by Cass County residents had succeeded in getting Internet towers placed atop area grain elevators, including a 120-foot elevator in Alvo.

John Sedlacek, public information officer for the Eagle volunteer fire department, said he anticipated the second tower would have to be brought down. The towers had been connected  at their tops.

“Why the second one’s still there, I don’t know,” he said.

Alvo, which has about 140 residents, is about 20 miles east of Lincoln.

Reach Art Hovey at 473-7223 or at ahovey@journalstar.com. Reach Cory Matteson at 473-7438 or cmatteson@journalstar.com.