(28 Apr 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Omaha, Nebraska – 27 April, 2024
1. Residents digging through rubble of leveled home
2. Residents walking though rubble
3. Person walking through debris
4. People comforting each other
5. SOUNDBITE (English) James Stennis, Omaha resident:
“We barely made it to the basement. I heard the destruction going on upstairs. Wow. Yeah.”
6. James Stennis’ home rubble
7. Home with collapsed roof
8. Residents cleaning up debris
9. Overturned car
10. SOUNDBITE (English) James Stennis, Omaha resident:
“We’re just taking it day by day. You come upstairs, and see that you have no house emerging from the basement. You’re home, but you’re actually homeless, you know? So, just the gravity of all that is something to but, you know, if you got a strong faith in Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you could you can make it through. So we’re gonna make it through.”
11. Exterior of Staci Roe’s home damage
12. Inside roof damage of Staci Roe’s home
13. Board stuck in wall of Staci Roe’s home
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Staci Roe, Omaha resident:
“Probably utter dread. It’s just. Yeah, it’s a sinking feeling. This was our forever home. And we’ve moved twice in the last two years. And we were supposed to be done. Yeah. And we came home and there was no home to really come to.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Minden, Iowa – 27 April 2024
15. Wide shot of Minden, Iowa damage
16. Truck dumping debris
17. Building damage
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Omaha, Nebraska – 27 April, 2024
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Staci Roe, Omaha resident:
“We’re, we’re alive. I mean, things can be replaced. One of the volunteers here said, actually, there was stuff from this neighborhood being found in Blanco, Iowa. So I had vintage family photos that are still unaccounted for. I’d like to find those. But we’re alive. Things can be replaced.”
17. Half of house collapsed
18. People on exposed second floor
19. Cars trapped under debris
20. Residents cleaning up debris
STORYLINE:
Residents began sifting through the rubble Saturday after a tornado plowed through suburban Omaha, Nebraska, demolishing homes and businesses as it moved for miles through farmland and into subdivisions, then slamming an Iowa town.
Dozens of reported tornadoes wreaked havoc Friday in the Midwest, causing a building to collapse with dozens of people inside and destroying and damaging at least 150 homes in Omaha alone.
But no fatalities were reported, and fewer than two dozen people were treated at Omaha-area hospitals, said Dr. Lindsay Huse, health director of the city’s Douglas County Health Department.
Neighboring communities reported a handful of injuries each.
The tornado damage started Friday afternoon near Lincoln, Nebraska.
An industrial building in Lancaster County was hit, 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.
One or possibly two tornadoes then spent around an hour creeping toward Omaha, leaving behind damage consistent with an EF3 twister, with winds of 135 to 165 mph, said Chris Franks, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Omaha office.
Ultimately the twister slammed into the Elkhorn neighborhood in western Omaha, a city of 485,000 people with a metropolitan-area population of about 1 million.
“We barely made it to the basement and then we heard the destruction going on upstairs,” said James Stennis, who moved to the Elkhorn neighborhood about a year ago.
Firefighters worked into the evening to make sure no one was trapped.
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/44c210f9ab4540b3b65d9b3ac895444f
