ELKHORN, Neb. (KMTV) — An eerie sound of alarms still beeping in this north Elkhorn neighborhood.
But Friday afternoon, "It's coming right at us, come on babe, come on, there's two," that's the wife of Jeff Ritchie in a video of the tornado he shared on X.
"Carolina said it best, it's like the bones of the house are breaking, all at once," Ritchie said.
"What was going through your head, when you heard that all happening, what did you think you might come up and see," reporter Molly Hudson asked. "I was just hoping I did come up and see anything honestly. I think everybody around here, probably, you really didn't know if you were going to make it out," said Ritchie.
Like many these two came out early Saturday to try to find what they could in their home, racing to beat the rain.
"Our family was on the way, but we had a lot of volunteers just stop by and ask if we needed help and once we had six to eight of those folks then everybody just kept bringing stuff up, we'd be here for a month I think if we didn't have the help," Ritchie said.
Jeff shared that at one point he had so many people helping he told some to go help others.
"It's an amazing feeling, when just volunteers that you don't even know, are just helping you out, just because they want to,” Ritchie said.
The damage out here is hard to see, from destroyed cars, pieces of homes still standing, down power lines, belongings everywhere and even being able to see right into someone’s kitchen.
For a neighborhood still growing, with many homes for sale, Jeff hopes this community will only grow closer.
"We have met almost every neighbor now in the last 24 hours, which is kind of a cool feeling, so hopefully everybody rebuilds, and we will be a lot closer knit than we were previously,” Ritchie said. “I am really not looking past today, we will just wake up and see what comes tomorrow."
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office has shared on social media that if anyone living in an affected area has concerns about theft from their property, contact DCSO at 402-444- 6700. They will also have extra personnel in those areas to deter criminal activity.
