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On a late October weekend 20 years ago, more than 13 inches of wet snow fell on Lincoln. The record-breaking snowstorm took down thousands of trees and left 55,000 Lincoln Electric System customers without electricity, some for more than a week.

The rain that fell Saturday, Oct. 25, 1997, changed to "thunder snow" by late evening, and by Sunday, Lincoln looked like a war zone.

People couldn’t navigate snow-covered roads, and power lines and tree limbs blocked many Lincoln streets. Churches canceled services. Schools and businesses closed for several days. In rural areas, hundreds of miles of roads — including 180 miles of Interstate 80 — were impassable.

Kathleen Maynard, who had given birth to her second child, Will, on Oct. 24, 1997, remembers looking out her Bryan West Campus hospital room window at the transformers, blowing up like fireworks.

Her husband, Terry, had to cross-country ski to the hospital to see his new son and wife, after digging out at their home in the hard-hit Country Club area.

Like many families, the Maynards had to find other places to stay — 2-year-old daughter Jessie with grandparents; mom, dad and baby at a friend’s apartment — for a week until electricity was restored at their house.