The damage path

Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette

Health providers and school officials check out "the swath of damage" caused by a "tornado" in a table-top exercise at Community Hospital in McCook Thursday afternoon. Prompted by Dari Olson (the hospital's safety director), first responders, city officials, church and school representatives plus city, county and state law enforcement officers worked their way through a tornado watch, warning and touch-down, and the importance of family preparedness at home. Surveying the damages in McCook were, front, from the left, Candy Crosby, Community Hospital; Joy Molcyk, Mid-Plains Community College and Evangelical Free Church; and Myra Stoney, Southwest Nebraska Public Health Department (SWNPHD). Back: Linda Dixon, Brookdale McCook retirement living; Brett Niemeth and Brian Obert, McCook Community College; and Joy Trail and Heidi Wheeler, SWNPHD.