Hundreds of residents across the Midwest saw their homes reduced to rubble as a swarm of devastating tornadoes ripped through the city center Friday night, with shocking images of the wreckage shown.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said there were as many as 78 possible twisters, mostly in Nebraska and Iowa, that damaged hundreds of homes, destroyed businesses and left 70 people injured. It is said to have caused the collapse of the building in which it was located.
Several injuries were reported, but no fatalities.
In Omaha, Nebraska, a city of 485,000 people and a metro population of more than 1 million, heartbreaking drone footage showed a block of homes completely shattered in the Elkhorn neighborhood. From local outlet WOWT is shown.
Footage showed many more homes completely missing their floors and roofs caving in, rendering them uninhabitable. Residents can be seen wandering the rubble-strewn streets that were their neighborhoods just hours ago.
“I could hear it coming,” Elkhorn resident Pat Woods said outside her home. “We came up and the fence was gone, and we looked to the northwest and the whole neighborhood was gone.”
Omaha Police Lt. Neil Bonacci said Saturday that the fire department had completed searching the damaged homes and buildings. He described his injuries as minor.
Mayor Jean Stothert announced she would sign a disaster declaration seeking state and federal aid, and Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said he had ordered state resources available for assistance.
In Venice, Nebraska, on the Platte River west of Omaha, Julie Jorgensen and her husband, Dana, were rushing home to weather the storm when they saw a tornado hit their home just a few hundred yards away. I witnessed it.
“I was scared for him because I knew he was in the house and I saw it hit the house,” she said. said it was amazing. “I turned on my phone so I could have taken a video, but I was shaking so bad I didn’t know how to use my phone.”
Danna survived by crawling into the crawl space of the house just before the collision.
“It was like a vacuum. There was noise and wind and things hitting the house and it was like it was being sucked into my ears. And within about 30 seconds it was gone,” he said.
The top floor of their home was completely stripped out.
One of the tornadoes struck an industrial building west of Omaha in Lancaster County, Nebraska, destroying it with 70 people inside.
Several people were trapped, but everyone was evacuated and only three had non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.
Another tornado passed through Eppley Airfield on the eastern edge of Omaha, destroying four hangar buildings containing 32 civilian aircraft. No one was injured and there was no damage to the passenger terminal. The airport has since resumed operations.
After striking the airport, the tornado spun rapidly toward Iowa and slammed into the small town of Minden, about 30 miles northeast.
Between 40 and 50 homes were completely destroyed, about half of the town’s population of just 600.
Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Jeff Schulen said at a news conference late Friday that two people were reported with injuries, none of which were life-threatening.
“It’s heartbreaking to see people losing their homes, their cars, their very lives until they have to rebuild,” he said, urging people to stay away from downed power lines.
The Minden Christian United Church weathered the storm and has become the town’s center of support for residents in need, including meals and rides home.
“A lot of people are kind of in shock,” said Pastor Eric Beal. “Everything is already overwhelming.”
Todd Lehan, a lifelong resident of the town, said he took shelter in a windowless basement.
“It sounded like someone was vacuuming on the roof of a house,” he recalls.
The National Weather Service said more severe storms could develop in the affected areas Saturday night, potentially causing more tornadoes and dangerous flooding.
Approximately 55 million people are threatened by severe weather in a 1,500-mile stretch from Mexico to Canada, along the Plains, Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes, Fox Weather reported.
Parts of Oklahoma under a tornado watch could see 5 to 10 inches of rain by Sunday morning, with the risk of flash flooding.
with post wire
