Severe spring storms will bring heavy rain and thunder on the plains and in the Mississippi Valley this weekend – including possible powerful tornadoeslarge hail and flooding.
On Friday, 21 million people are at risk of severe storms stretching from northern Iowa to northeast Texas, with major threats including hail up to 4 inches in diameter and a few possible strong tornadoes in Kansas City, Missouri, and Omaha, Nebraska.
Tornadoes were reported but unconfirmed Friday in Texas and Nebraska as the National Weather Service issued a rare “tornado emergency” declaration for the area of Blair, Nebraska, a small town about 26 miles north of ‘Omaha.
The emergency also applied to the town of Missouri Valley, Iowa, and neighboring areas of Iowa along the Nebraska border. The service describes tornado emergency declarations as “extremely rare” and says they are reserved for tornadoes confirmed by reliable sources or manifested via radar data and imagery.
The area covered by the release faces “a serious threat to human life and catastrophic damage from an imminent or ongoing tornado,” the service said in its online glossary.
The National Weather Service office in Valley, Nebraska, was unable to confirm reports of multiple tornadoes that appeared to touch down north of Omaha as it focused on dealing with a wave of incoming reports. Several social media videos verified by NBC News appeared to show tornadoes in the air and nearby or on the ground in or near Lincoln, Waverly and Elba.
Nearly 16 million people were also under a tornado watch that stretched from central Texas to upper Nebraska, but as of Friday evening that number was reduced to about 1.3 million, according to the weather service.
Earlier in the day, tornado warnings, which alert residents of imminent danger and urge them to take shelter, were in effect across parts of eastern Kansas and eastern Nebraska as a line of thunderstorms hit the area.
Omaha police and firefighters said two people were slightly injured when a tornado touched down in the northwest part of the city.
“It looks like a lot of homes are razed and a lot of homes have significant damage as well,” Omaha Fire Department Chief Kathy Bossman said at an early evening news conference.
Crews would begin searching the area for any potentially injured residents this evening, she said. However, the area has homes under construction, Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said, and they may be empty.
The city is experiencing power outages, gas leaks and utility poles and tree limbs falling onto the roads, the fire chief said. Nearly 7,000 utility customers were without power in Nebraska, according to Utility Tracker PowerOutage.us. In neighboring Iowa, the figure exceeded 15,000.
Schmaderer attributed the low number of injuries so far to early warnings from the National Weather Service and others. “The warning systems have been very effective,” he said.
In the zone…
