'Came out of nowhere': Lincoln reacts to tornadoes that swept across Lancaster County

The twister that dropped over the northeastern edge of the Capital City on Friday — part of a system that produced multiple confirmed tornadoes — was snapping powerlines and damaging vehicles and businesses along north 84th Street.

Retzlaff, 71, said he’s seen tornadoes go by the home on Fletcher Avenue where he’s lived for decades on multiple occasions. But never has one gotten so close before.

“I got scared, so I ran into the house,” the 84-year-old Retzlaff said. “It went through the yard and dropped a bunch of crap.”

As neighbors surveyed the damage — a toppled semi-truck and trailer, farm equipment strewn through a field, and somehow, a tree lodged in the roof of a machine shed — Retzlaff leaned against his pickup, gaze fixed a mile or so to the northeast.

There, the tornado, which at one point grew to a half-mile in size, made what appeared to be a direct hit on Garner Industries’ facility near U.S. 6 and North 98th Street.

The intense winds caused the building to collapse and several people wound up trapped inside, according to the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office.

About 70 people were inside the manufacturing plant when the tornado hit.

Three people were transported to area hospitals, including two to the Bryan Trauma Center at Bryan West Campus with what authorities described as non-life-threatening injuries.

The other employees were able to be evacuated safely, law enforcement said.

There were no reported deaths from the storms in Lincoln on Friday.

Ven Strilkivsky, 31, rushed on foot toward Garner Industries to offer help to those escaping from the collapsed building after capturing video of the tornado roaring by his home, snapping power lines and trees along the way.

Law enforcement officers beat him to the scene, however, and turned him around. Strilkivsky eventually made his way to Retzlaff’s property, where he shared hugs with neighbors and showed off the video of his close encounter with the twister.

“We were just chilling in the back and the tornado came out of nowhere and just went right by our house, right by our shop,” Strilkivsky said. “It’s crazy. I’m in a little bit of shock.”

Lincoln Electric System crews had already begun to fan out across the area to restore power to about 1,200 people who were left without after the tornado cut through several lines between northeast Lincoln and Waverly.

Norris Public Power, which also serves customers in the Waverly area, said about 720 people lost power, but that was down to fewer than 10 by 7 p.m. Friday.

By 8 p.m. Friday evening, about 70 LES customers remained without power, according to spokeswoman Sally Jarecke.

She couldn’t provide a time frame for when electricity would be restored to all customers because crews had not yet assessed the full scope of the damage.

“There could be a need for extended outages depending on the damage,” Jarecke told the Journal Star.

Farther to the northeast, the tornado pushed several railroad cars off the track and overturned one semi in the eastbound lanes near mile marker 409 on Interstate 80, causing traffic to back up for miles. I-80 remained open, but the Nebraska Department of Transportation closed U.S. 6 from 84th Street to the I-80 on ramp and did not say when it might reopen.

Friday’s storm began about 17 miles to the southwest of Lincoln, where the National Weather Service identified a thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado at about 2:15 p.m.

As the storm moved to the northeast at 40 miles per hour, tornado sirens sounded in Lincoln at 2:30 p.m., causing Lincoln Public Schools to issue a shelter in place order for middle and high school students. Elementary students were not in class on Friday.

Waverly Public Schools students were not in class because of the Arbor Day holiday.

The tornadoes could be spotted from parking garages in downtown Lincoln, where University of Nebraska-Lincoln students gathered to watch the storm pass, and were broadcast live on local television stations.

As they moved into northeast Lincoln, more than 400 shoppers were forced to shelter for nearly two hours at the Spring Affair Plant Sale at the Sandhills Global Event Center at 4100 N. 84th St.

Tornadoes were spotted a quarter mile or less around the center.

“It was close. We were very lucky here,” said Michelle DeRusha of the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, which holds the yearly sale. “There were a lot of people in the event center and just coming in for the sale.”

The sale was supposed to start at 2 p.m., and she said people were lined up outside the building. They were ushered inside when staff received storm alerts on their phones. The shelters are the restrooms in the large facility. Some people also used horse stalls at the center.

People were given the all clear to leave the shelters in the building around 3:30 p.m.

Lincoln Transportation and Utilities said the storm knocked out traffic signals at three northeast Lincoln intersections — 70th Street and Cornhusker Highway, 84th Street and Cornhusker Highway and 84th and Adams streets. The department said it hoped to have the signals repaired by sometime Saturday.

At about 2:45 p.m., spotters said a tornado touched down near the Kawasaki manufacturing plant near U.S. 34 and Northwest 27th Street, but it was unclear if that twister did any damage.

Other tornadoes and funnel clouds were reported near Greenwood and Ashland as the storm tracked to the northeast toward the western and northern suburbs of Omaha on Friday evening.

The National Weather Service said it was too early to determine how many tornadoes had touched down Friday in Lancaster County or in the areas between Lincoln and Omaha.

The Omaha World-Herald contributed to this story.