Pillen confirms no loss of life in NE from Friday storms, but hundreds lost homes

OMAHA — Gov. Jim Pillen joined leaders from the Omaha, Bennington, Elkhorn and Waterloo areas in thanking Nebraskans for listening to weather forecasts that warned them to take shelter during Friday’s storms.

“It is an extraordinary miracle that we’ve had this kind of a cell come through, and no categories (of serious injuries), and no loss of life,” he said.

Pillen offered an update Saturday on the state and local storm response with Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert, Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer, Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson, Waterloo Fire Chief Travis Harlow, Bennington Fire Chief Dan Mallory and more. 

He said he missed a call Saturday from President Joe Biden, who left a message offering whatever assistance Nebraska needs from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as officials prepare to declare a disaster.

“We’ll be having the declaration soon, so we’ll make sure that we’re helping everybody,” Pillen said.

Omaha Fire Chief Kathy Bossman, Mallory and Harlow said rescue crews had moved in quickly after the storm and finished checking for potential injuries and fatalities by late Friday evening.

Still surveying the damage

State and local emergency management officials were still surveying and documenting losses to Friday’s tornadoes they said did the most significant damage in Douglas, Lancaster, Saunders and Washington Counties.

Erv Portis of the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency said the state did not yet know the full scope of homes and businesses lost, but said that Douglas County had already tallied more than 150.

Pillen, Hanson and State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan toured neighborhoods in the Elkhorn area and in Bennington at midday Saturday, hours after the federal delegation visited homeowners near Waterloo and in west Omaha.

He said he spoke with Nebraskans who lost their homes and belongings, including a family that had just moved to Douglas County from Kentucky and another that had been in their new home two months.

Jill Martin of the Nebraska chapter of the American Red Cross said her group had worked with other local nonprofits to set up a community shelter in the Elkhorn area and Blair.

Pillen: Report major home damage

Pillen urged Nebraskans who suffered damage to their homes and businesses to notify their local county emergency management agency. He said doing so could help Nebraskans qualify for additional federal aid.

State and local governments and public power districts have already likely suffered enough damage to qualify for FEMA disaster aid called “public assistance,” which is basically aid for government agencies.

Individual home damage amounts could also unlock federal assistance for “individual assistance,” which is a federal aid program to help homeowners pay for some of the costs not covered by insurance.

Business owners who lost property could also become eligible to pursue government-subsidized, low-interest small business loans from the Small Business Administration to help recover from losses.

The state could end up qualifying for all three, officials said, given how much of eastern Nebraska got hit by tornadoes on Friday — the National Weather Service is still trying to confirm how many.

Airport update

Omaha’s Eppley Airfield offered a clearer picture of the millions of dollars in damage it sustained from a tornado that destroyed a pair of hangars on the private aviation side of the airport.

Private aircraft in both hangars suffered significant damage, but the main equipment used to get private planes and people in and out of Eppley’s General Aviation were up and running again hours later.

Airport Authority Chief Executive Officer Dave Roth said he expects the airport to be ready to welcome Berkshire Hathaway Days next week, a major celebration of Warren Buffett’s company that draws tens of thousands from around the world.

He said the tornado had done little to no damage to the commercial side of the airport or to the new construction taking place on the commercial side.

Powerful storms

Chris Franks of the National Weather Service said the strength of the tornado that hit Lancaster and Douglas Counties looked like an EF-3, with winds of 135 mph to 165 mph. He said the Omaha airport tornado looked closer to an EF-2, with winds of 110 mph to 135 mph.

He warned Nebraskans to pay attention again to predicted storms predicted for later Saturday.

Stothert praised the work of local first responders and others who helped Omaha police and fire. Both agencies confirmed they had officers and firefighters who lost homes to the storms.

Stothert said she would be signing an emergency declaration Saturday to get the ball rolling on unlocking state and federal emergency assistance to help pay for mounting costs of responding to the storms. 

“It will be a very expensive event that the city will put in a lot of money to make sure that we recover the way that we need to be recovering,” she said.

Major storms often cost cities and other political subdivisions, including public power utilities, hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars for rescue crews, cleanup and power restoration.

Utility work ongoing

Omaha Public Power District said it was still working to restore power Saturday to more than 4,000 customers across its service area. The utility lost major transmission lines and neighborhood lines.

Metropolitan Utilities District told Douglas County Emergency Management’s Paul Johnson that local drinking water remained safe after the storm, but it was still repairing some damaged gas lines.

Pillen said he was not yet deploying the National Guard to help with disaster response, but that he would be sending local law enforcement agencies some backup from the Nebraska State Patrol.

Hanson and Schmaderer urged people who don’t own property in the affected areas to stay away and avoid the temptation to go see the damage first-hand. Hanson warned potential looters that they would be arrested.

“Don’t do it,” he said.