Tornadoes collapse buildings and level homes in Nebraska and Iowa

OMAHA —  Residents began sifting through the rubble Saturday after a tornado plowed through suburban Omaha, demolishing homes and businesses as it moved for miles through farmland and into subdivisions, then slamming an Iowa town.

Friday night tornadoes wreaked havoc in the Midwest, causing a building to collapse with dozens of people inside and destroying and damaging hundreds of homes.

There have been several injuries but no fatalities 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 over and 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 Pat Woods, who lives in Elkhorn. “When we came up, our fence was gone and we looked to the northwest and the whole neighborhood’s gone.”

Omaha Police Lt. Neal Bonacci said Saturday that the Fire Department had completed its search of damaged homes and structures. He described the injuries as minor.

“You definitely see the path of the tornado,” Bonacci said.

“People had warnings of this and that saved lives,” Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said.

The tornado warning was issued in the Omaha area on Friday afternoon just as children were due to be released from school. Many schools had students shelter in place until the storm passed.

Aaron Hanson, the sheriff of Douglas County, which includes Omaha, begged the community in a message on the social media platform X to not drive to the damaged areas for “mere entertainment.” He said gawkers were causing traffic jams and could slow emergency vehicles.

Meanwhile, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen posted on 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 planned a news conference later Saturday in Omaha.

“Nebraskans are no strangers to severe weather, and, as they have countless times before, Nebraskans will help Nebraskans to rebuild,” Pillen said.

The storm churned up 78 potential tornadoes, mostly in Iowa and Nebraska, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said in its latest briefing report.

The National Weather Service had not yet confirmed their strength. But the Omaha office said in a message on X that some of the damage its crews were encountering appeared consistent with EF3 twisters, with peak winds of 150 mph.

One of the tornadoes hit an industrial building to the west of Omaha, in Nebraska’s Lancaster County, causing it to collapse with 70 people inside. Several were trapped, but everyone was evacuated and the three injuries were not life-threatening, authorities said.

Sheriff’s officials there also said they had reports of a toppled train near Waverly, Neb.

Another tornado passed over Eppley Airfield on the eastern edge of Omaha, destroying four hanger buildings with 32 privately owned planes inside. No one was hurt and the passenger terminal was not hit. The airport has resumed operations, although access to areas used by noncommercial pilots is limited so crew can clean up the mess, the airfield said in a news release.

After hitting the airport, the storm moved into Iowa, taking aim at the small town of Minden.

Forty to 50 homes were destroyed. Two injuries were reported but none were life-threatening, Jeff Theulen, chief deputy of the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office, said at a late Friday briefing.

“It’s heartbreaking to see these people who have lost houses, cars, essentially their life until they have to rebuild it,” he said, urging people to stay away because of downed power lines.

At the 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 in need, Pastor Eric Biehl said.

“A lot of people are just kind of in shock,” Biehl said. “It’s all overwhelming now.”

Tammy Pavich, who stores equipment on the west edge of town, said she “kind of breathed a sigh of relief” after the first round of tornadoes moved through Omaha. Then, she recalled, 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.

The damage caused headaches for Nebraska football fans headed to the spring game in Lincoln, the capital.

“Be prepared for heavy traffic, buckle up and put the phone down,” warned the Nebraska Department of Transportation.

Even as the National Weather Service worked to evaluate the damage, the forecast for later Saturday was ominous for northwestern Texas and across western Oklahoma. FEMA also said the tornado outbreak could extend into Kansas and Missouri.

“Tornadoes, perhaps significant tornadoes,” were possible Saturday afternoon and evening, said weather service meteorologist Bruce Thoren in Norman, Okla.

Associated Press writers Funk and Beck reported from Omaha, Hollingsworth from Mission, Kan. AP writers Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines; Jack Dura in Bismarck, N.D.; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Wash., contributed to this report.