It was 40 years ago Wednesday that a violent tornado cut a 10 mile path through central Omaha, killing three people.
The F4 tornado struck Omaha just after 4:30 p.m. on May 6, 1975. 133 people were injured and the tornado caused up to $500 million in damage. Brian Smith, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Omaha, says storm spotters played an important role then.
"It was a storm spotter that alerted people to what actually was taking place. That allowed us to put out a warning, and then the warnings were disseminated to the media and also through outdoor warning devices that Omaha had."
Smith says the role of storm spotters has changed with advances in technology, but they continue to be important during severe weather.
Ken Dewey is a professor of Applied Climate Science at UNL. He moved to Nebraska about six months before the tornado, and came to Omaha on May 7, 1975 to see the damage. Dewey says he’s still amazed by the sight at the first home he saw.
"The dinner table was still set. Now, there was no roof to the house, the walls were gone, just an interior closet and a basement where she took shelter. And I just stood there with my eyes wide open thinking that’s an amazing thing. And of course I’ve seen over and over again since then that a house can be destroyed, but there will be things inside the house that are untouched."
Both Smith and Dewey are concerned that people have become complacent in the decades since the Omaha tornado. They say there’s also still an incorrect belief that tornadoes won’t hit cities.
Bergan Mercy Medical Center, Westgate and Lewis and Clark schools, and Creighton Prep were among the Omaha landmarks heavily damaged by the storm.