Achi news desk-
Omaha, Neb. –
Tornadoes wreaked havoc Friday in the Midwest, causing a building to collapse with dozens of people inside and destroying and damaging hundreds of homes, many around Omaha, Neb.
On Friday evening, there were several reports of injuries but no immediate deaths. Tornado warnings continued to be issued into the evening in Iowa.
Three people were injured in Lancaster County in Nebraska when a tornado hit an industrial building, causing it to collapse with 70 people inside. Several were trapped, but all were evacuated and the injuries were not life-threatening, authorities said.
One of the most destructive tornadoes moved for miles Friday through mostly rural farmland before gnawing at homes and other structures in suburban Omaha, a city of 485,000 people with a metropolitan area population of about a million.
Photos on social media showed that the small town of Minden, Iowa, about 30 miles (48.3 kilometers) northeast of Omaha also suffered heavy damage.
Jeff Theulen, chief deputy of the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office, said at a late briefing Friday that 40 to 50 homes were completely destroyed. Two injuries were reported but none of them were life threatening.
School buses have been brought in to give residents a ride out of town if they need one, he said. He asked others to stay away, as it was a very dangerous area with downed power lines and piles of debris where homes used to be.
“It’s heartbreaking to see these people who have lost houses, cars, basically their life until they have to rebuild it,” he said.
The forecast for Saturday was very small. The US National Weather Service issued tornado watches across parts of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. Forecasters warned that large hail and strong wind gusts were possible.
“It looks like a big outbreak again tomorrow,” said Becky Kern, the warning coordinating meteorologist at the Omaha office of the US National Weather Service. “Maybe a little further south.”
Hundreds of houses suffered damage in Omaha on Friday, mostly in the Elkhorn area in the west part of the city, said Omaha police Lt. Neal Bonacci.
“You definitely see the path of the tornado,” Bonacci said, adding that many of the homes were destroyed or severely damaged.
Police and firefighters went door-to-door to help people, going to the “hardest-hit area” with a plan to search anywhere someone might be trapped, Omaha Fire Chief Kathy Bossman said.
“We’ll be looking through properties in piles of debris, we’ll be looking in basements, trying to find any victims and make sure everyone who needs help is rescued,” Bossman said.
In one area of Elkhorn, dozens of large newly built homes were damaged. At least six were wrecked, including one that had been leveled, while others had their top halves ripped off. Dozens of emergency vehicles responded to the area.
“We watched it touch down like 200 yards away and then we took cover,” said Elkhorn resident Pat Woods. “We could hear it coming through. When we came up our fence was gone and we looked to the northwest and the whole neighborhood is gone.”
Kim Woods, his wife, added, “The whole neighborhood just north of us is pretty flat.”
Three people, including a child, were in the basement of the flat when the tornado hit but got out safely, according to Dhaval Naik, who said he works with the owner of the home.
KETV-TV video showed one woman being moved from a collapsed home on a stretcher in Blair, a city just north of Omaha.
Two people were transported for treatment, both with minor injuries, Bonacci said.
Crews were doing a second search of homes. Fire crews would work throughout the night to check all the unsafe structures and make sure no one is inside, Bonacci said.
“People got warnings of this and that saved lives,” Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said of the few serious injuries.
The tornado warning was issued in the Omaha area on Friday afternoon just as children were expected to be released from school. Many schools had students shelter in place until the storm passed. Hours later, buses were still taking children home.
“Was it one long-track hurricane or was it several hurricanes?” Kern of the US National Weather Service said.
The agency planned to send multiple crews over the next few days to determine the number of hurricanes and their strength, which could take up to two weeks, he said.
“Some appeared to be violent tornadoes,” Kern continued. “There were hurricanes in different areas. And so it’s like forensic meteorology, we call it, like putting all the damage indicators together.”
Another tornado hit an area on the eastern edge of Omaha, going straight through parts of Eppley Airport, the city’s airport. Officials halted aircraft operations to access damage but then reopened the facility, Omaha Airport Authority Chief Strategy Officer Steve McCoy said.
The passenger terminal was not hit by the tornado but people rushed to storm shelters until the twister passed, McCoy said.
After passing through the airport, the tornado crossed the Missouri River and entered Iowa, north of Council Bluffs.
Nebraska Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Katrina Sperl said Friday afternoon that damage reports were starting to come in. Taylor Wilson, a spokeswoman for the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said they had not seen any injuries yet.
In Lancashire, where three people were injured when an industrial building collapsed, sheriff’s officials also said they had reports of a derailed train near Waverly, Nebraska.
Two people who were injured in the county were being treated at the trauma center at Bryan Medical Center West Campus in Lincoln, the facility said in a news release. The hospital said the patients were in triage and no details of their condition were released.
The Omaha Public Power District reported that nearly 10,000 customers were without power in the Omaha area. The number had dropped to around 7,300 by Friday evening.
Nebraska Gov. posted. Jim Pillen on social platform X that he has ordered state resources to be available to help with the emergency response and to support first responders as they assess the damage.
“Israelis are no strangers to severe weather and, as they have countless times before, Nebraskans will help Nebraskans rebuild,” Pillen said.
Daniel Fienhold, manager of the Pink Poodle Steakhouse in Crescent, Iowa, said he was outside watching the weather with his daughter and restaurant workers, recalling that “it looked like a pretty big tornado was forming” i’ the north-east of the town.
“It started to rain, and then it started to gust, and then all the clouds started to swirl and come together, and as soon as the wind started to rise, that’s when I went for the basement, but we never saw, ” said Fienhold.
Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas. Associated Press writers Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, Jack Dura in Bismarck, N.D., Jeff Martin in Atlanta and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Wash., contributed to this report.
