BLAIR, Neb (KMTV) — Standing at the entrance of his destroyed home, Kevin Tracy recalls when he first saw the storm that ripped through Washington County Friday afternoon.
“We were standing right here, and looking this way and we saw it coming,” said Ken.
Ken and his wife Kelly were watching closely from their home just south of Blair as devastating tornadoes ripped through northwest Omaha Friday afternoon.
But it wouldn’t be long before Kelly and Ken came face to face with the same storm that has devastated Bennington and Elkhorn.
“All of a sudden I noticed the slightest change in the rotation and the movement so I said we have to get out of here,” said Ken.
The couple quickly gathered up Ken’s 92 year old mother and their dogs and took shelter in their basement… and it was only moments later that they heard their home start to come down around them.
“Then it just sounded like you are inside of a car wash. All that beating and the noise going on. Loud booms and thuds and the lights going off,” said Kelly .
When Ken crawled out of his basements just a few minutes later their home was almost entirely destroyed.
The damage on their first floor was immense, the roof and garage had blown away and were sitting in pieces behind their house and all three of their vehicles had suffered significant damage.
But thankfully, despite all of the destruction, no one was hurt.
Within minutes of the storm blowing through, while Ken and Kelly were still surveying the full extent of the damage, help began to roll in.
“People in the neighborhood were coming around bringing water and snacks, just asking if there is anything we can do. We have stranger upon stranger a chain of people coming to help and it’s just a blessing," said Kelly
Saturday morning, even more folks started to pour in, all offering to help pick up the pieces.
“We all may need help someday. I would hope that somebody would come to my rescue if I need it. As long as I don’t need it and I have the ability to help other people I will do what I can,” said Kim Logsdon, one of hundreds of volunteers who showed up to assist in the clean up on Saturday.
With their close encounter with the tornado fresh in their mind Ken and Kelly aren’t sure yet what their next steps are.
They hope to rebuild right but right now they say the amount of damage is making it hard to picture what will happen next
“Now its try to figure out when the clean up is gonna start, where are we gonna live. What are we going to do for the next year to rebuild. Im sure all of these questions are the same question if you were to ask anybody out there the would say the same thing,” said Kelly.
