OMAHA, Nebraska – Tornadoes wreaked havoc Friday in the Midwest, causing a building with dozens of people inside to collapse and destroying and damaging hundreds of homes, many on the outskirts of Omaha, Nebraska.
On Friday night, there were several reports of injuries, but no immediate deaths were reported. Tornado warnings continued to be issued into the night in Iowa.
Three people were injured in Lancaster County, Nebraska, when a tornado struck 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 tracked for miles on Friday, passing through mostly rural farmland before destroying homes and other structures in the suburbs of Omaha, a city of 485,000 with a metro area population of about 1 million.
Photos on social media showed that the small town of Minden, Iowa, about 30 miles northeast of Omaha, also suffered heavy damage.
The forecast for Saturday was ominous. The National Weather Service has issued tornado warnings for parts of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. Forecasters warned that large hail and strong wind gusts were possible.
“It looks like tomorrow there will be a big outbreak again,” said Becky Kern, warning coordinating meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Omaha office. “Maybe a little further south.”
Hundreds of homes suffered damage in Omaha on Friday, mostly in the Elkhorn area on the city’s west side, 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 the plan to look for any place where someone might be trapped, said Omaha Fire Chief Kathy Bossman.
“We will be looking at properties in piles of rubble, we will be looking in basements, trying to find victims and making sure everyone who needs assistance is rescued,” Bossman said.
In one area of Elkhorn, dozens of large, newly built homes were damaged. At least six were destroyed, including one that was flattened, while others had their top half torn off. Dozens of emergency vehicles responded to the area.
“We saw it land about 200 yards away and then we took shelter,” said Pat Woods, who lives in Elkhorn. “We could hear him passing by. When we came up, our fence was gone and we looked northwest and the whole neighborhood was gone.”
Kim Woods, his wife, added: “The whole neighborhood to the north of us is pretty devastated.”
Three people, including a child, were in the basement of the destroyed home when the tornado struck but got out safely, according to Dhaval Naik, who said he works with the home’s owner.
Video from KETV-TV showed a woman being taken out of a demolished home on a stretcher in Blair, a city north of Omaha.
Two people were transported for treatment, both with minor injuries, Bonacci said.
Teams were doing a second search of the homes. Fire crews would work through the night to check any unsafe structures and ensure no one was inside, Bonacci said.
“People were warned about this and it saved lives,” Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said of the few serious injuries.
A tornado warning was issued for the Omaha area on Friday afternoon, just as children were expected to leave school. Many schools kept students sheltered until the storm passed. Hours later, buses were still transporting the children home.
“Was it one long tornado or multiple tornadoes?” Kern of the National Weather Service said.
The agency planned to send several teams over the next few days to determine the number of tornadoes and their strength, which could take up to two weeks, she said.
“Some appeared to be violent tornadoes,” Kern continued. “There were tornadoes in different areas. And so it’s like forensic meteorology, as we call it, like putting the pieces together, all the indicators of damage.”
Another tornado hit an area in far east Omaha, passing directly through parts of Eppley Airfield, the city’s airport. Authorities halted aircraft operations to access the damage but later reopened the facility, said Steve McCoy, director of strategy for the Omaha Airport Authority.
The passenger terminal was not hit by the tornado, but people ran to storm shelters until the tornado passed, McCoy said.
After passing 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 just starting to come in. Taylor Wilson, a spokeswoman for the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said she had not yet seen any injuries.
In Lancaster County, where three people were injured when an industrial building collapsed, sheriff’s officials also said they had reports of an overturned train near Waverly, Nebraska.
Two people 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 undergoing triage and no details were released about their condition.
The Omaha Public Power District reported that nearly 10,000 customers were without power in the Omaha area. The number fell to about 7,300 on Friday night.
Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen posted on social platform X that he had ordered state resources to be made available to help with the emergency response and to support first responders as they assess the damage.
“Nebraskaians are no strangers to severe weather, and as they have done countless times before, Nebraskans will help rebuild,” Pillen said.
Daniel Fienhold, manager of Pink Poodle Steakhouse in Crescent, Iowa, said he was outside watching the weather with his daughter and restaurant staff, recalling that “it looked like a big tornado was forming” northeast of town.
“It started raining and then it started hailing, and then all the clouds started spinning and coming together, and as soon as the wind started to pick up, I went into the basement, but we never saw it,” said Fienhold.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
