2LT International News

OMAHA, Nebraska: Over the weekend, residents of suburban Omaha, Nebraska began sifting through rubble after a tornado hit the area, destroying homes and businesses as it moved through farmland and into subdivisions before hitting an Iowa town.

In the Midwest, a series of tornadoes wreaked havoc, causing a building to collapse with dozens of people inside and destroying and damaging at least 150 homes in Omaha.

Dr. Lindsay Huse, health director of the city’s Douglas County Health Department, said no deaths were reported, and fewer than two dozen people were treated at Omaha hospitals.

“Miraculous” Huse said, adding that none of the city’s injuries were serious, and neighboring communities also reported several injuries.

Chris Franks, meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Omaha office, said one or possibly two tornadoes spent around an hour creeping toward Omaha, leaving behind damage consistent with an EF3 twister, with winds reaching between 135 and 165 mph.

The tornado then hit the Elkhorn neighborhood in western Omaha, a city of 485,000 people with a metropolitan-area population of about one million.

Elkhorn resident James Stennis, said, “We barely made it to the basement and then we heard the destruction going on upstairs.”

On Saturday, Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds toured the damage and organized assistance for affected communities. Formal damage assessments are still being conducted, but the two states said they will ask for federal help.

During a news conference, Pillen said, “It is an extraordinary miracle that we have had this kind of cell come through and no casualties, no loss of life.”

The National Weather Service issued tornado watches for parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Iowa.

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