OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Friday night's severe storm caused a lot of damage around Douglas County.
Trees fell, streets were blocked off from debris, many were without power, and some traffic lights went out.
While many heard the storm throughout the night, they weren't sure how much damage it had done until they went outside Saturday morning.
"I was woken. It sounded like a freight train was coming through my house. I have three broken windows coming through my dining room. All my lines are down, and I have debris everywhere. I’ve been cleaning up for two hours," said Douglas County resident Charles Stanton.
Many didn't realize how bad the damage would be and had to rush to stores like Ace Hardware to buy equipment to clean up.
"It’s been pretty crazy with chainsaws and blowers and bags, the lovely stickers you have to put on the bags," said Ashley Fry, an Ace Hardware employee. "We got to the point where we had to tell our customers on the phone they had to come in and check out our stock for chainsaws because we have a few different types but it’s kind of hard. It’s going out the door so fast we don’t know what we have left in stock."
Local organizations are working to help the community. Heartland Hope Mission is giving out food items to those whose groceries may have been ruined because of the storm and power outages.
"We really want to be there for people who have been affected by the storm. We realize that some people on low incomes if they lose a lot of the refrigerated items, that could be a financial crisis for them. We want to be available to help them by providing additional food items, especially refrigerated items like your meat dairy fresh produce things like that," said Renae Bush, community relations specialist at Heartland Hope Mission.
They will also be providing additional resources for those who may be experiencing a financial setback because of the storm. Their South Omaha location on 2021 U street will be open next week for food and resources. They can be reached at (402) 733-1904.
