Residents began sifting through rubble Saturday after a tornado swept through suburban Omaha, Nebraska, demolishing homes and businesses as it moved for miles through farmland and into housing developments , then hitting a town in Iowa.
Friday night’s tornadoes wreaked havoc across the Midwest, 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.
Saturday morning, the sound of chainsaws filled the air in the Elkhorn neighborhood of Omaha, a city of 485,000 with a metro population of about 1 million. Wood from damaged houses lay in piles. Fences were toppled and trees were skeletal, missing most of their branches.
Power outages peaked at 10,000, but fell to 4,300 by morning.
“We could hear it go by,” said Pat Woods, who lives in Elkhorn. “When we arrived, our fence was gone and we looked to the northwest and the whole neighborhood was gone.”
Omaha police Lt. Neal Bonacci said Saturday that firefighters had completed their search for damaged homes and structures. He described the injuries as minor.
Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen posted on social media platform X that he had ordered state resources to be made available to help. He and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds planned to tour damaged areas. And Pillen has scheduled a news conference later Saturday in Omaha.
The National Weather Service was still assessing the number and strength of tornadoes.
One struck an industrial building west of Omaha in Lancaster County, Nebraska, causing it to collapse with 70 people inside. Several people were trapped, but everyone was evacuated and the three injuries were not life-threatening, authorities said.
Sheriff’s officials also said they received reports of an overturned train near Waverly, Nebraska.
Another tornado passed over the eastern edge of Omaha, directly through parts of Eppley Airfield, the city’s airport. The passenger terminal was not affected, but officials halted flight operations to access the damage before reopening the facility, said Steve McCoy, chief strategy officer for the Omaha Airport Authority.
After hitting the airport, the storm moved toward Iowa, targeting the small town of Minden.
Forty to fifty houses were completely destroyed. Two injuries were reported, but none were life-threatening, Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Jeff Theulen said during a news briefing Friday evening.
“It’s heartbreaking to see these people who lost their homes, their cars, and essentially their lives, until they have to rebuild it,” he said, calling on people to stay home. gap due to downed power lines.
At Minden United Church of Christ, which survived the storm and became a community center for aid and support, there were plans to take 4×4 vehicles into devastated areas of the city to deliver meals to those who need it, the pastor said. » declared Eric Biehl.
“A lot of people are just in shock,” Biehl said. “Everything is overwhelming now.”
Tammy Pavich, who stores equipment on the city’s western edge, said she “kind of breathed a sigh of relief” after the first set of tornadoes passed through Omaha. Then, she remembers, the storm “hit Minden hard.”
Todd Lehan, a longtime city resident, said he took shelter in a windowless basement.
“It sounded like a vacuum cleaner above your house,” he remembers.
Even as the National Weather Service worked to assess the damage, the forecast for Saturday was worrisome. He issued tornado watches early Saturday for northwest Texas and western Oklahoma.
“Tornadoes, maybe significant tornadoes,” were possible Saturday afternoon and evening, said meteorologist Bruce Thoren of the weather service in Norman, Oklahoma.
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.
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