Omaha, Nebraska.-
Residents began sifting through debris Saturday after a tornado ripped through the suburbs of Omaha, Nebraska, demolishing homes and businesses as it moved for miles across farmland and subdivisions, then struck an Iowa town.
Friday night’s tornadoes wreaked havoc across the Midwest, causing a building with dozens of people inside to collapse and destroying and damaging hundreds of homes.
There have been several injuries but no fatalities have been reported.
On Saturday morning, the sounds of chainsaws filled the air in the Elkhorn neighborhood of Omaha, a city of 485,000 with a metropolitan area population of about 1 million. Wood from damaged houses lay in piles. Fences were torn down and trees were skeletal, missing most of their branches.
Power outages peaked at 10,000, but dropped to 4,300 in the morning.
“We could hear it,” said Pat Woods, who lives in Elkhorn. “When we arrived, our fence was gone and we looked northwest and the whole neighborhood was gone.”
Omaha Police Lt. Neal Bonacci said Saturday that the fire department had completed its search for damaged homes and structures. He described the injuries as minor.
The city’s Douglas County Sheriff, Aaron Hanson, pleaded with the community in a message on social media platform X not to drive to damaged areas for “mere entertainment.” He said onlookers were causing traffic jams and could slow down emergency vehicles.
Meanwhile, Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen posted on X that he had ordered state resources to be made available to help. He and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds planned to tour the damaged areas. And Pillen planned a news conference for later Saturday in Omaha.
The storm spawned 78 potential tornadoes, primarily in Iowa and Nebraska, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said in its latest information report.
The National Weather Service had not yet confirmed its strength. But the Omaha office said in an X message that some of the damage its crews were finding appeared consistent with EF3 tornadoes, which generate maximum winds of 150 mph (241 kph).
One of them hit an industrial building west of Omaha, in Lancaster County, Nebraska, causing it to collapse with 70 people inside. Several were trapped, but all were evacuated and the three injured were not life-threatening, authorities said.
Sheriff’s officials there also said they had reports of an overturned train near Waverly, Nebraska.
Another tornado passed over Eppley Airfield on the east end of Omaha, destroying four buildings with 32 privately owned aircraft inside. No one was injured and the passenger terminal was not affected. The airport has resumed operations, although access to areas used by non-commercial pilots is limited so the crew can clean up the mess, the airfield said in a news release.
After hitting the airport, the storm moved toward Iowa and targeted the small town of Minden.
Between 40 and 50 homes were completely destroyed. Two injuries were reported, but none were life-threatening, Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Jeff Theulen said at a briefing Friday night.
“It’s heartbreaking to see these people who have lost homes, cars, essentially their lives until they have to rebuild them,” he said, urging people to stay away because of downed power lines.
At the Minden United Church of Christ, which survived the storm and has become a community center for help and support, there were plans to take all-terrain vehicles to devastated areas of the city to deliver meals to those who need them, the official said. Shepherd. said Eric Biehl.
Gopala Penmetsa walks past his home after it was destroyed by a tornado near Omaha, Nebraska, on Friday, April 26, 2024. (Chris Machian/Omaha World-Herald via AP)
“A lot of people are in shock,” Biehl said. “Now everything is overwhelming.”
Tammy Pavich, who stores equipment on the city’s west end, said she “kind of breathed a sigh of relief” after the first round of tornadoes moved through Omaha. Then, she recalled, the storm “hit Minden squarely.”
Todd Lehan, a lifelong resident of the city, said he took shelter in a windowless basement.
“It sounded like a vacuum cleaner on top of your house,” he recalled.
The damage was causing headaches for Nebraska football fans heading to the spring game.
“Be prepared for heavy traffic, buckle up and put down the phone,” the Nebraska Department of Transportation warned.
Even as the National Weather Service worked to assess the damage, the forecast for Saturday was ominous. It issued tornado watches early Saturday for northwest Texas and western Oklahoma. FEMA also said the tornado outbreak could spread to Kansas and Missouri.
“Tornadoes, perhaps significant tornadoes,” were possible Saturday afternoon and evening, said weather service meteorologist Bruce Thoren in Norman, Oklahoma.
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Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas. Associated Press writers Ken Miller in Oklahoma City; Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa; Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota; Jeff Martin in Atlanta and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington; contributed to this report.