1913 Easter tornado kills 150 people in Omaha
On March 23, Omaha marks 110 years since the killer Easter Sunday Tornado of 1913, the deadliest Nebraska has ever seen.
At least 150 people died in the storm on Sunday, March 23, 1913 as it tore through the heart of Omaha.
"It was on the ground for maybe 30-40 miles, and just part of a tornado came through the city," KETV Chief Meteorologist Bill Randby said in 2013. "It started in Sarpy County, came across Douglas County and ended up in Harrison County, Iowa."
Randby said the timing of the storm, along with the power of the tornado, made for a deadly combination.
"Nobody had an indication they had a tornado coming," said Randby. "It was March, a time of the year when people are still thinking snow. I would say completely unpredictable."
In 2013, an Omaha woman described the storm as impossible to forget, and she knows firsthand; she lived through it.
"It was very scary," Maude Wangberg said in an interview with KETV NewsWatch 7's Ryan Luby. "I remember my parents being terribly upset."
Around 6 p.m. that day, an F-4 tornado cut a quarter-mile path right through the middle of Omaha. From the Ralston area, the storm moved north and east, almost following what is now Saddle Creek Road.
It then veered onto the property now occupied by the University of Nebraska Medical Center, then shifted north and east through Bemis Park. The tornado moved to 24th and Lake and eventually to Carter Lake.
According to the National Weather Service, the tornado destroyed 800 homes and damaged another 2,000 with a total monetary loss of nearly $9 million.
It wasn't until the next day, from a streetcar, did Wangberg see how bad the damage was.
"On the way home, we saw ravages of the tornado," Wangberg told Luby. "Clothes were hanging in trees."