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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.

Preston within Richardson County

Population over time

2 figures

Preston 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.

YearPeople Change
201028
202019-9 (-32%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 12 printed sheets

Matched 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.

Fires near this place

23 since 2002

Regional 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 burning17
Equipment and vehicle use2
Missing data/not specified/undetermined2
Arson/incendiarism1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
11 August 2008Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named
7 June 2017Debris and open burning1.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
5 June 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named
9 April 2010Debris and open burning12 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
26 April 2019Debris and open burningunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named
15 April 2019Debris and open burning8.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
7 March 2006Debris and open burning25 acresHorton AgencyLONG SPUR
6 March 2020Debris and open burning100 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Richardson County

Storms near this place

5 since 2008

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
October 2024Thunderstorm WindPreston$5,000Emergency 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 2023Tornado (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 2021Flash FloodPreston-Law enforcement reported water over Highway 159.
May 2013FloodPreston-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 2008Tornado (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.

Every storm recorded in Richardson County

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 PlaceDistance Sheets
Preston Census Designated Place0.0 miles12
Archer (historical)4.5 miles12
Falls City4.8 miles12
Rulo4.9 miles13
Yancton (historical)6.0 miles13
Nohart (historical)8.0 miles13
Straussville8.0 miles11
Arago (historical)8.4 miles14

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 PrestonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q3288906The 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.