‘An extraordinary miracle’: Nebraska tornadoes cause extensive damage, but no loss of life

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - During an extensive update Saturday afternoon, officials applauded the efforts of the public to help but also underscored the need for people to largely avoid heavily damaged areas.

Local, county, regional, and state officials held a news conference at 3 p.m. Saturday along with representatives from area organizations and agencies to share details about the events of Friday’s storms as well as map out recovery efforts ahead and those already underway.

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said he received a call from President Biden this afternoon but couldn’t answer as he was out.

“The federal government is here to help us every single step of the way and we’ll being having declarations soon. So we’ll make sure that we’re helping everybody,” Pillen said.

The governor said he expected to issue his disaster proclamation soon, which will precipitate the ability for the president to release federal resources. Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a similar proclamation for areas of Iowa on Friday night.

Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert said during Saturday’s news conference that she plans to sign an emergency proclamation later Saturday afternoon, noting that “this will be an expensive event.” She said the city wants to make sure that residents are able to fully recover, and that the City Council is expected to also exempt building permit fees as people work to rebuild.

Adj. Gen. Craig Strong, who is handling Nebraska Emergency Management, said there were “public safety warriors” out there assisting in the recovery phase. He said there was already coordination happening between local, state, and federal government agencies, and expects to coordinate directly with FEMA early next week.

Strong said he expected there to be public, individual, and small business assistance available. The Nebraska National Guard is on standby, but has not yet been activated to assist.

DAMAGE ASSESSMENTS

Gov. Pillen said Saturday that there had been about 80 weather events reported across the state, and there is a lot of work ahead to clear debris.

Chris Franks with the National Weather Service said five damage survey teams set out just after sunset Friday to examine two areas in Douglas County, and that their work was expected to continue Sunday and Monday.

Based on the damage they’ve already seen, NWS made a preliminary determination that a “solid EF-3″ tornado, with 135-165 mph winds, started in Lincoln then headed into western Douglas County and into Blair. Franks said the tornado that hit Eppley Airfield in Omaha and traveled into western Iowa was an EF-2, with winds reaching 110-135 mph.

“These are strong tornados, rare tornados,” particuarly since there was more than one — and both so intense, he said.

Most of the tornado damage happened in Douglas County, with more than 150 homes counted so far.

Douglas County Emergency Manager Paul Johnson said authorities are examining the debris paths to determine the scope of the storms. He said a spotty trail could be seen across Douglas County, before settling into Elkhorn, then lifted up a little and touched down along the way before making its way to Bennington and into Washington County.

Mayor Stothert said that as of Saturday afternoon, about 4,300 were still without power, noting that an electrical distribution network was damaged in the storm.

The governor spent some of Saturday afternoon ahead of the news conference touring the most heavily damaged areas.

“Let me tell ya, it’s extraordinarily sobering,” Pillen said, calling it an “emotional experience” to take in, particularly against the backdrop of another big event happening in the state: Saturday’s traditional Husker Red-White game.

He asked that people stay away from damaged areas, but said that he has seen a lot of neighbors helping neighbors — “salt of the Earth.”

Rather than try to seek out ways to help in the worst-hit parts of town, the Red Cross encouraged people to check on their own neighbors to make sure they’re doing OK.

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SAFEGUARDING HEALTH

The Douglas County Health Department has had personnel out in the community to assist restaurants and other food-service businesses to make sure they are able to reopen safely, Health Director Lindsey Huse said during the update. They are also working with response agencies helping provide food and water to the public, and with sanitation officials to oversee repairs and assure no health issues exist or are introduced.

Hospitals were in communication Friday evening to prepare for the worst, and to assure that they could continue operating should the worst happen. While some locations briefly lost power, there were no major outages — and no catastrophic injuries.

“That is just miraculous considering the scope of what we saw happen yesterday,” Huse said.

She said the credit for those low numbers goes beyond the weather service.

“There was so much information being shared just being shared openly on the internet that could be easily seen in different locations all kind of at the same time really gave people a good idea of what was happening.”

DCHD is also mindful of the work ahead, she said, asking anyone who might have been injured during the storms to may be injured during recovery to consider getting a tetanus shot.

Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson urged anyone who doesn’t live in areas affected by the storms to stay away from those areas. He said that authorities trying to survey damaged areas have been caught in multiple traffic jams throughout the county on Saturday because of “looky-loos.”

Hanson also cautioned that with heavy clean-up and recovery efforts underway, that could result in injuries — even catastrophic ones — and traffic gridlocks could prevent or delay emergency response and put people at extreme risk.

TAKING STOCK

Many at the podium on Saturday expressed relief and amazement that no one was critically injured or killed in Friday’s tornadoes and other storm activity across the state.

“It is an extraordinary miracle that we’ve had this kind of a cell come through and no casualties, no loss of life,” Gov. Pillen said.

Omaha Fire Chief Kath Bossman said authorites were done with search and rescue by about 9:30 p.m. Friday. In the end, only about 18 people had reported mostly minimal injuries.

With more severe weather on the way, the governor also urged Nebraskans not to panic, expressing that he was grateful that there had only been a couple of minor injuries.

Several people credited local media for getting vital information out to the public quickly.

“You prevented a lot of injury and probably death,” Mayor Stothert said, thanking the media for their work on Friday.

Johnson thanked news media and local meteorologists for keeping Nebraskans safe.

Franks also commented on the safety efforts that were in place — from those issuing and sharing the warnings to those who got employees, students, and families to shelter in place or sent people home early.

“Thanks to those who did the right thing and took it seriously,” he said.

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