43 images

Severe Storm

On Friday evening, June 27th 2008, a severe thunderstorm rapidly descended upon the Omaha area. It packed winds between 110-115 miles per hour and poured a lot of rain really fast. The storm moved so quickly it was out of the area within 30 minutes. The damage around us was significant. Two people died when a large tree was hurled atop their moving car. Approximately 146,000 people were with out power. That included us.

Melissa was home in bed with a migraine. I was driving home from work. We both have a different account of what we experienced. For my part, I got caught in the brunt of the storm while driving. Visibility went to zero. It got dark and the rain was blowing sideways. All I could see was the vehicle in front of me, and we had both come to a complete stop because we could no longer see the road. There were hailstones pounding the car. I could tell the power lines were down in the area I was driving because once the immediate hard rain let up and you could resume driving, the traffic lights were all out. I also tried calling Melissa at home to see how she was doing. The cell phone towers near me were apparently also without power because I was unable to get any connection with my phone. After traveling about 2 miles, in bumper-to-bumper traffic, moving without the benefit of traffic lights at intersections, I was able to get a signal and there was a voice mail message from Melissa. She had called just as the storm hit. Our apartment is on the north-west side of town I was more centrally located. The storm moved in from the west and she encountered it minutes before I did. Her message was disturbing. She was obviously scared and said that she heard what sounded like portions of the roof being pulled up and several loud bangs. She had quickly taken shelter in the bathroom and said she thought she saw what looked a lot like a tornado outside the tiny bathroom window. I tried returning her call for the next 45 minutes and was unable to make a connection. Either the cell towers were not operating where she was or the system had become overloaded with calls. So you can imagine the worry while trying to drive home

Here is Melissa's account of the storm . . .

I was in bed at the time with another migraine, trying to sleep it off. I heard the sirens sound, but only for ~30 seconds. Then they stopped. I didn't realize it at the time, but the sirens were knocked out by the storm. We had very little warning. I heard the hail start, loud but not too scary. Suddenly, I heard the roof above me being torn off (we're on the top floor). Our apartment faces the west, which was directly in the path of the storm with no buffer.

I was in the master bedroom. When I felt the pressure in the room increase so violently that my hearing became muffled, I hit the floor and crawled to the main area of the master bath. Then I heard loud crashes against the building and what looked like tornadic activity outside the tiny window above our soaking tub. The air pressure in the room was so high I felt like I was in a fast-ascending jet. I skittered across the bathroom floor on my knees in my underwear and t-shirt and wedged myself between the toilet and wall, covered my head and prayed.

The pounding was relentless. I heard a really loud bang and then the pressure in the apartment dropped so fast my ears popped. I thought for sure the roof was coming off. After what seemed like an eternity, the storm slowed to a point that I felt safe enough to get up and look around. Sobbing and bruised from hitting the floor so hard, I ventured out into the living room to survey the damage.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that our sliding glass door had been blown completely out of the track and into our living room. All the windows/doors were tightly sealed in the apartment at the time of the storm, which is what caused the pressure to climb so severely. All that force had to go somewhere, I guess. The glass didn't break, but there was lots of water and debris everywhere. Our deck looked like a salad mixer had thrown up.

Once I could get an outside phone line, I called my husband and friends to garner support. Steve was on the expressway when the storm hit, but he was south of the most violent portion of the storm.

I couldn't find our two cats for several minutes after collecting my wits. Calling out to them and crying, I looked everywhere. It didn't occur to me that they'd be smart enough to get in the bathtub in the guest bathroom. I saw their eyes glowing when I opened my mobile phone to shine some light into the tub. They were huddled together. Perhaps I should have taken their lead. A small silver lining in all this is that the adrenaline from the storm completely wiped out my migraine, and it hasn't returned.

In our neighborhood along N. 132nd Street, at least 12 power lines in a row were down on houses, business, etc. No electricity, and they estimated days before it would be restored. Initially there were ~146,000 without power. Just three days later, the number was down to ~24,000. We got our power back on Saturday night. Those remaining residents will be without power for at least a week or more. The winds peaked between 110-115 mph. Two 18-yr olds were killed in the storm. There were many injuries requiring urgent care. Our neighborhood looks like a war zone, although one area was hit even harder than we were.

During the drive home, I heard the power lines were down at 132nd & W. Maple. That's the major intersection not far from where we live. I realized I would have to go the long way around if the power lines were down because the traffic was likely to be at a stand-still. As I came upon our neighborhood, I took some photographs of what I saw.

You can click on any of these pictures to open up a new web page with a much larger photograph. All these photographs were taking with my iPhone while driving, so the quality is not as good as could be.

The first two pictures above were taken on the drive through the neighborhood on the way home. You can see some fallen trees. One in someone's driveway. Another where a large tree fell across a fence into the road. The third picture was taken just as I pulled into the apartment complex were we live. On the left side of the drive you can see what was left of someone's trampoline. It apparently had been lifted out of a yard somewhere and dropped, all mangled, in our area.
This first picture was sad to see. You can't tell it unless you lived here, but along the left side of the drive there was a row of beautiful pear trees. You can see only two in the photograph and they are really far apart. It looks like roughly three trees, between the remaining two, are all gone. The next picture shows what appears to be parts from the roof of one of the apartment buildings. The last picture in this row shows one of the trees that was standing just before the office building. You can see it sheared at the base.
First picture is another snapped tree, next to the swiming pool. You can see from the diameter of the tree, there must have been some hard winds blowing. The next photograph is interesting because it shows two small details about what the storm also did. That's one of the storage garages. You can see all the shredded leaf fragments plastered against the walls and garage door. Those shredded leaves were strewn everywhere. The other thing I noticed was a pile of hailstones in the corner of the door. The third picture in this row shows a large collection of hailstones piled up around the backdoor of our apartment building.
I got hold of Melissa, and she came down to meet me when I arrived. We walked around to survey what had happened. In the first picture in this row you can see how deep the hailstones were as she stood in them. The next photograph shows something that happened inside our apartment. There's a large, heavy, double-paned sliding glass door in our living room. It opens up to the balcony outside. As you can see here, the storm blew the heavy glass door out of its tracks and tossed it inside the living room. It didn't break, and luckily my wife was safe in another room when that happened. It was probably one of the loud bangs she heard. The carpet for roughly a yard radius around the door was soaked with water, which speaks to the wind velocity of this storm. That door is at least three feet away from and diagonal to open sky. Nothing appeared to be damaged, and it was dry by morning. We had just moved our 50" screen TV away from that area a few weeks before this storm. It would have been destroyed from water damage had we not moved it. The last shot in this row and the first photograph in the next, are some things I noticed when going out onto the balacony to look around. Our apartment is on the top floor of a three-story building. The building itself sits atop a hill and that hill overlooks a neighboring trailer park. You can see several trees with whole sections snapped off.
The middle photograph in the above row is another shot of that tree that was snapped off over by the swimming pool. The other picture shows our apartment building. Melissa heard those roof shingles being torn off during the storm. We were without electricity all night and most of the following day. So we found our candles and flashlights and did the best we could in the situation. The next morning I woke up early and went for a drive around the neighborhood. If at all possible, I wanted to see what had happened to our power lines.
The roads near the intersection of 132nd & W. Maple were closed. I drove around to the local grocery store parking lot and took these photographs of the intersection and general area. You can see that the repair guys had their hands full. The first picture is not very clear, but you can see a telephone pole on the ground by the gas station. Also, the "hood" over the gasoline pumps looked severely damaged. It looks like the sheet metal that enclosed the roofing had been peeled away. In the second picture you can see the KFC restaurant, which is adjacent and to the left of the gasoline station. Another pole can be seen laying in the parking lot. You can also see the power lines running along the ground. Further to the left you can see more utility poles that had fallen over and landed on the roofs and sides of the storage facility. This is farther left from the KFC.
As I pulled the VW forward, I was able to take a photograph showing a little more of the street and downed poles. You can see a small gathering of power utility trucks working on poles that had fallen onto some homes. The next two shots are more of the same section. The next six photographs were taken as I drove past the work area and was heading back home.
The last three photographs on this page were taken later in the day. Since we didn't have power, Melissa and I decided we should maybe go out and purchase some ice for a cooler to store food, and pick up something to eat for lunch. Since I was driving she took photographs, again using my iPhone. What's remarkable about the scene in the first photograph is what's missing. That's a shot of the Walgreens Pharmacy at the corner of 132nd & W. Maple. What's missing are the traffic lights. Only one set of lights are there. Three sets are gone. You can see parts of the traffic light system laying on the ground where the workers are gathered and some is propped up against one of the standing metal poles. There are more photographs on the next page...