Tornado That Struck Omaha’s Western Suburbs Now an EF4

OMAHA–(KFOR July 30)–A review of the April 26 tornado that tore through the far western sections of Omaha has now been upgraded to an EF-4 rating, with winds estimated to be between 165 and 170 mph.

The twister went on a 31-mile trek from far southwest Douglas County into western Harrison County in Iowa, going through Elkhorn, Bennington and southern sections of Blair. The weather service said reviewing high resolution overhead photography showed there were a few points in the tornado’s track that showed EF-4 damage.  It was part of the same storm system that first produced a tornado that touched down north of 84th and Havelock on the northeastern edge of Lincoln, moved northeast and destroyed Garner Industries’ building at 98th and Highway 6.

The storm had intermittent tornado touchdowns between Waverly and the Platte River, before the EF-4 twister touched down in southwest Douglas County.

Based on research done by KFOR News, the EF-4 tornado is the third one to strike the Omaha metro area in the past 111 years, including the 1913 Easter Sunday storm that killed about 100 people and the May 6, 1975 tornado that destroyed southwest and central sections of Omaha and left three people dead.

Both the 1913 and 1975 tornadoes were F4s, under the old Fujita Scale system.