Achi news desk-
Omaha, Neb. –
Residents began sifting through the rubble Saturday after a tornado plowed through suburban Omaha, Nebraska, toppling homes and businesses as it moved for miles through farmland and into subdivisions, then slammed into the Iowa town.
The tornadoes on Friday night wreaked havoc in Mid Wales, causing a building to collapse with dozens of people inside and destroying and damaging hundreds of homes.
There were several injuries but no deaths were reported.
By Saturday morning, the sounds of chain saws filled the air in the Elkhorn neighborhood of Omaha, a city of 485,000 people with a metropolitan area population of about 1 million. Lumber from the damaged homes lay in piles. Fences were knocked down and the trees were skeletal, missing most of their branches.
Power outages peaked at 10,000, but had dropped to 4,300 by morning.
“We could hear it coming through,” said Elkhorn resident Pat Woods. “When we came up, our fence was gone and we looked to the northwest and the whole neighborhood was gone.”
Omaha police Lt. Neal Bonacci on Saturday that the fire department has completed its search of damaged homes and structures. He described the injuries as minor.
Nebraska Gov. posted. Jim Pillen on the X social media platform that he has ordered state resources to be available to help. He and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds plans to tour damaged areas. And Pillen planned a news conference later Saturday in Omaha.
The National Weather Service was still evaluating the number and strength of the twisters.
One of them hit an industrial building west of Omaha, in Lancaster County in Nebraska, causing it to collapse with 70 people inside. Several were trapped, but all were evacuated and the three injuries were not life-threatening, authorities said.
Sheriff’s officials there also said they had reports of a derailed train near Waverly, Nebraska.
Another tornado passed over the eastern edge of Omaha, directly through parts of Eppley Airport, the city’s airport. The passenger terminal was not hit, but officials suspended aircraft operations to access damage before reopening the facility, Omaha Airport Authority Chief Strategy Officer Steve McCoy said.
After hitting the airport, the storm moved into Iowa, heading for the small town of Minden.
Forty to 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 late Friday.
“It’s heartbreaking to see these people who have lost houses, cars, basically their life until they have to rebuild it,” he said, urging people to stay away because of downed power lines.
At Minden United Church of Christ, which survived the storm and has become a community hub of help and support, there were plans to take 4-wheel drive vehicles out to devastated parts of town to bring meals to those who need them, Pastor Eric Biehl said.
Gopala Penmetsa walks past his house after it was leveled by a tornado near Omaha, Neb., Friday, April 26, 2024. (Chris Machian/Omaha World-Herald via AP)
A lot of people are in shock,” Biehl said. “It’s all overwhelming now.”
Tammy Pavich, who stores equipment on the western edge of town, said she was “kind of breathing a sigh of relief” after the first round of tornadoes moved through Omaha. Then, she remembers, the storm “hit Minden dead-on.”
Todd Lehan, a lifelong resident of the town, said he took shelter in a windowless basement.
“It sounded like a vacuum cleaner on top of your house,” he recalled.
Even as the National Weather Service worked to assess the damage, the forecast for Saturday was dim. Tornado watches were issued early Saturday for northwest Texas and across western Oklahoma.
“Tornadoes, possibly 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.
