ELKHORN, Neb. (KMTV) – Dan Urban, son of the owners of Quail Run Horse Centre says it been a year full of recovering and rebuilding after the tornado ripped through the center's barns during a horse show.
- Quail Run was in the middle of a horse show when the tornado came through.
- The center is still rebuilding the barn.
- Urban says the past year has been full of rebuilding and there is still a long way to go.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Quail Run Horse Centre puts on hundreds of shows a year. Right now, it’s in the middle of putting on the Omaha Equestrian Spectacular, the same one that was cut short last year when a tornado tore through the center.
“When it passed, I immediately got up and ran out the door to go to the horses below, I stepped out the door and looked left, looked right and it was a surreal moment that will be in my head forever,” Dan Urban, son of the owners said.
The tornado ripped down trees around the property before hitting the barn, turning the back half into a pile of debris.
In the beginning, the center focused on getting the basic functionality back for the riders and horses.
Now it’s working on the repairs.
“We are still cleaning up even now, it’s been over a year, and we are still in the process of recovering from that,” Urban said.
The past year has been full of rebuilding, the back half of the barn now has a temporary wall and a stack of hay bales.
“During the winter we had to come up with some solution, so we build that hay wall down there to operate,” he said.
There’s still a lot of reconstruction that needs to be done, inside the barn and out.
And Dan says he’s dealt with an emergency before after the 2019 floods put some of his property underwater, but this was different.
According to Urban, he’s more prepared going forward, knowing when to get his riders, and horses to take shelter.
“We are going to continue what we do and produce these events and provide opportunities to equine enthusiasts, it may not be perfect at the moment, but we are going to keep going,” he said.
