Nebraska tornadoes: Blair neighborhood ponders future weeks after storm roared through
BLAIR, Neb (WOWT) - Kevin Faulhaber sat on a stool in his driveway at Millstone Estates in Blair, just a few feet from his home’s foundation.
When we met him, he was waiting for his builder to show up to go over plans to build a new house.
The April 26 tornado ripped apart and pretty much shredded the one-and-a-half story home that he shared with his wife on Sundown Drive near County Road 32 in Washington County.
From house to house as you enter the subdivision, all you see now are homes gutted, debris everywhere, lives turned upside down.
“It was a monster. To do this much damage in a matter of minutes is unfathomable,” Faulhaber said.
Faulhaber’s wife texted him from her job at Nebraska Medicine that Friday afternoon and told him to be aware, that workers were going into their storm shelter because of the threat of an approaching tornado.
Faulhaber waited and watched from his deck in Blair as the tornado moved closer. He took cell phone video — he could hear the rumble of the storm getting louder.
He eventually took cover in his basement.
“The house started to violently shake. It started to creek. It moaned. I looked over my right shoulder and watched the whole house get lifted up and thrown to the west, " he remarked.
When neighbors pulled him out with the help of a ladder, he saw all his belongings tossed about and obliterated. Almost nothing was salvageable.
He was not alone.
“We have 22 houses here in our subdivision called Millstone Estates, 20 of them were unlivable,” Faulhaber said.
TORNADO RECOVERY
Apply for FEMA aid, IRS tax relief
Federal agencies are working to get financial assistance to Nebraskans working to recover from the April 26 tornadoes.
How to help — and find help
Here are ways you can assist those in Nebraska and Iowa who are recovering from tornadoes that hit on Friday, April 26.
Fortunately, despite the tornado’s incredible power and destruction, Kevin Faulhaber and his neighbors were uninjured.
Weeks later, debris is in huge piles all around the neighborhood. Tarps cover roofs of homes that might be fixable. Some homeowners are waiting for a structural engineer to make that assessment.
Faulhaber is grateful he made it out of alive. He says the belongings are replaceable, and he is planning to rebuild in the exact same spot.
The Washington County Emergency Manager tells 6 News that the tornado there affected approximately 154 homes in the county, including 26 in Blair. In Douglas County, emeregency officials said a total of 943 houses sustained some sort of damage, and 173 of those are considered completely destroyed.
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