Preston, Nebraska
12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1915 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Jefferson precinct. It lies in ZIP code area 68355. It stands on Berard Creek. The Survey maps it on the Falls City quadrangle. 19 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 942 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresPreston fell from 28 to 19 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 28 | |
| 2020 | 19 | -9 (-32%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 12 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1915 USGS Falls City quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1955 USGS Nebraska City quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Nebraska City quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Nebraska City quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Falls City quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1986 USGS Falls City quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
23 since 2002Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 23 fires within 5 miles of Preston between 2002 and 2020, burning about 232 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 17 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 August 2008 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 7 June 2017 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 5 June 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 9 April 2010 | Debris and open burning | 12 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 26 April 2019 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 15 April 2019 | Debris and open burning | 8.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 7 March 2006 | Debris and open burning | 25 acres | Horton Agency | LONG SPUR |
| 6 March 2020 | Debris and open burning | 100 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
5 since 2008Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Preston in 5 storm reports between 2008 and 2024: 2 tornado, 1 flood, 1 flash flood, 1 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Preston | $5,000 | Emergency management reported 6 train cars on a double-stacked train that were leaning from a tree that had fallen on them. Time was estimated by radar. |
| May 2023 | Tornado (EF0) | Preston | - | A small tornado traveled approximately 2 miles toward the northeast, beginning just a few hundred yards south of the Nebraska Kansas border and continuing north into Richardson County. This tornado caused power line damage, roof damage to a shed, and door damage to another outbuilding. There was also evidence of swirl marks in the cornfields. A spotter did report a tornado near this location. |
| June 2021 | Flash Flood | Preston | - | Law enforcement reported water over Highway 159. |
| May 2013 | Flood | Preston | - | Persistent heavy rainfall across southeast Nebraska lead to a saturated ground and flooding along the Big Nemaha River near Falls City, NE. Lowland flooding was reported along the river from near Falls City to near Rulo. The river crested at 29.10 feet on the morning of the 30th of May, just over 4 feet above flood stage. |
| June 2008 | Tornado (EF0) | Preston | - | A brief tornado caused scattered tree and farm outbuilding damage southeast of Falls City. Another tornado, stronger and longer lived, formed several miles to the north of this one from the same supercell thunderstorm. |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preston Census Designated Place | 0.0 miles | 12 | |
| Archer (historical) | 4.5 miles | 12 | |
| Falls City | 4.8 miles | 12 | |
| Rulo | 4.9 miles | 13 | |
| Yancton (historical) | 6.0 miles | 13 | |
| Nohart (historical) | 8.0 miles | 13 | |
| Straussville | 8.0 miles | 11 | |
| Arago (historical) | 8.4 miles | 14 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Preston | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3288906 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 832391. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.





