A strong weather system moved through south-east and east Nebraska into Iowa and continued onward, starting Friday afternoon. The first tornado warning was issued for Lancaster Country around 1:20pm on Friday afternoon, causing students and staff at Lincoln High School to move into the Standard Response Protocol of Shelter. The all-clear was sounded around 2:15 when Principal Mark Larson dismissed the hold. During the approximately one-hour time period, the tornado sirens were heard several more times with several funnel clouds being spotted around Lincoln including over Pioneer’s Park and north near 33rd and Superior Streets.
Another funnel cloud spawned a tornado north-east of Lincoln in the town of Waverly, Neb. Amateur video show the twister from the area of 33rd and Superior Streets, just south of Lincoln Northstar High School. That tornado was seen in many videos on social media crossing right over I-80 just east of Lincoln, and it derailed a train on its pathway, and also caused a roof collapse of a business on Highway 6 just east of Lincoln.
The storms moved to the East-Northeast and ripped through the town of Elkhorn, Neb., leaving many homes damaged or demolished and staff and students of local schools were in shelter for several hours. The storms even headlined the CBS Evening News of Friday with video of the tornado in Waverly welcoming viewers to the broadcast and CNN also picked up the story along with The Weather Channel. The storm system and videos of the system even made international news, headlining FranceInfo, the state-run national news outlet in France.
Later, the storm moved over Omaha’s Eppley Airfield and a tornado touched down on airport property. According to the Airport’s X account, “The Omaha Airport Authority is thankful there were no injuries at Eppley Airfield as a result of the storm. We are working with individual airport tenants and aircraft operators regarding their specific impact. Our focus will remain on safe and secure airport operations.”
More severe weather is expected on Saturday as another system is set to move through. According to the National Weather Service, Lincoln is within the Enhanced area of threat for severe weather on Saturday. According to their webpage, the Enhanced label means, “An area of greater (relative to Slight risk) severe storm coverage with varying levels of intensity”.
updated 4/29/24 9:25am
