May 6 75 Omaha Tornado

[nebugeater]

For those of you who are old enough to remember or have heard about the tornado that made a permanent mark on Omaha 30 yr ago on May 6 this is a web site you should check out. This guy has put a lot of effort into documenting the event all in one place. Thought some of you may what to take a trip down memory lane.

http://www.omaha5675.org/

[Coyote]

Boy do I remember this day. I was 14 - my parents were on vacation in the Gulf. But most of all - it occured the day before Frosh kill day at Prep. So on May 6th in '76 when I was a Freshman at Prep - the '75 seniors came back to help the '76 seniors exterminate us Freshmen. I still have a scar from that day.

[Omaha Cowboy]

Really a nice looking site!..

Thank you for posting the link here ..

..Ciao..LiO....Peace

[almighty_tuna]

Hmm, I think I have the World Herald from that event. I should do some digging. Speaking of storms, so far its been pretty uneventful. Slightly disappointing from a tornado buff's standpoint.

[Brad]

Tornadoes Focus Of Ben Nelson's New Committee
Nelson Gets Assignment On Disaster Committee

http://www.theomahachannel.com/news/4445416/detail.html

[Coyote]

May 6, 1975: Omaha won't forget

Top tornado states

States with the most tornadoes,
1950-2004:
1. Texas
2. Oklahoma
3. Florida
4. Kansas
5. Nebraska
6. Iowa
7. Missouri
8. Illinois
9. South Dakota
10. Louisiana

Source: National Weather Service

I had no idea Florida was in the mix.

1975 Omaha Tornado Ripped Through AkSarBen

And check out their video report

[Brad]

Nice Video by the OWH:
http://studio.omaha.com/1975-Omaha-torn ... on=omahawh

And the Story:
http://www.omaha.com/weather/rememberin ... 9b375.html

10 Year Thread Revival!

[Coyote]

10 Year Thread Revival!

40 years ago? I remember th day well...

[Brad]

10 Year Thread Revival!

40 years ago? I remember th day well...

I was -3

[jessep28]

Here's a four part YouTube playlist of a video the city produced detailing the response. This was put up on YouTube back in the day when there was a 10 minute video limit.

[BRoss]

Wow, the OWH really put together a great video.

This was over 8 years before I was born. But it really got to me...

[jessep28]

"Flyover." The OWH could have rented a plane for an hour versus phoning it in with Google Maps.

[GRANDPASMUCKER]

Boy do I remember this day. I was 14 - my parents were on vacation in the Gulf. But most of all - it occured the day before Frosh kill day at Prep. So on May 6th in '76 when I was a Freshman at Prep - the '75 seniors came back to help the '76 seniors exterminate us Freshmen. I still have a scar from that day.

Thursday May 8th 1975 I was picking up big sheets of gold tinted glass out of the middle of 72nd street right out in front of Creighton Prep. The tornado had hit one of those all glass buildings up on Dodge and deposited a lot of the glass in a huge pile out in front of Creighton Prep and it was blocking 72nd St. I was a 9th grader at Nathan Hale and had volunteered to help clean up the tornado mess so I didn't have to go to school. You had to go up to K-mart on 72nd and Ames at 9 Am in the morning and they loaded you up on busses to go out into the Tornado zone to help clean up. The entire tornado hit zone was closed off and guarded by National Guard men with M-16s. I got on my bus at 8AM with 2 of my friends and they hauled us down 72nd in front of Creighton Prep and said start picking up that glass and throw it in the back of that dump truck. It sucked and was hard work. That glass was about an inch thick and weighted a lot. About 11AM a school bus pulls up and a guy jumps out and said he was from a church in Ralston and they had made a nice lunch for any volunteers that were hungry. My friends and I were not really hungry but anything sounded better then picking up that damn glass all day. So we got on the bus and they drove us out to a church in Ralston on 84th St between Q and L street. We sat down and ate a wonderful lunch and decided that instead of going back to Creighton Prep and picking up some more of that glass we would sneak out the back of the church and go do some sight seeing for the rest of the day. We started walking down 84th street and proceeded to walk on foot the entire path of the tornado all the way up to the Crossroads. It took us hours and we got to the Cross Roads about 4PM. Crossroads was closed and the parking lot had about 3 or 4 big food trucks handing out free food to volunteers. I walked over to a bank of free phones that had been set up for victims and called my Mom and told her to come pick us up. While we waited for my Mom we walked over to the food trucks and they were giving out free KFC and McDonalds and all kinds of food. It was a feast and we pigged out. About 4:40 my Mom shows up and we got in the car and told her how hard we had been working all day and that we could not wait to come back Friday and help some more! My Mom was working in the Emergency room at Immanuel Hospital the day of the tornado. That was when Immanuel was down on 30th & Ames still. My Mom saw one of the guys that got killed in the Tornado get brought in. He was cold dead with a 2 by 4 impaled in his chest. The guy had been standing on top of a gas station roof on 68th & Maple trying to get a better view of the coming Tornado!

[Brad]

Interesting story.

I always heard the guy in the gas station roof was at 72 and Dodge?

[jessep28]

http://www.omaha.com/blogs/from-the-arc ... 794ad.html

I'm too lazy to quote, but that OWH article I just linked states that the individual in question was at 69th and Maple. It's questionable whether he was on the roof of the gas station to look at the tornado.

[GRANDPASMUCKER]

http://www.omaha.com/blogs/from-the-arc ... 794ad.html

I'm too lazy to quote, but that OWH article I just linked states that the individual in question was at 69th and Maple. It's questionable whether he was on the roof of the gas station to look at the tornado.

Thanks for posting that. That was a great link. Read it all and loved it. Man oh man the memories. One of those pics supports my story of the guy getting killed standing on the roof of the gas station trying to see the tornado. (You crave it to get a little deep so lets go there!) Believe it or not I was at a party in Benson in the early 80's and ran into someone who was friends with someone who had been there when it happened. I just can't remember much about it! Seems like he was telling me that that there was 3 of them there and they had heard on the radio the Tornado was coming north up 72nd. They were trying to see it and couldn't see nothing at all because Maple dips down a little bit there so the guy climbs up on the roof of that gas station and all the while those other guys are screaming at him to get the heck down from there and all of a sudden it comes over the hill and Blammy.

[nativeomahan]

Boy do I remember this day. I was 14 - my parents were on vacation in the Gulf. But most of all - it occured the day before Frosh kill day at Prep. So on May 6th in '76 when I was a Freshman at Prep - the '75 seniors came back to help the '76 seniors exterminate us Freshmen. I still have a scar from that day.

Thursday May 8th 1975 I was picking up big sheets of gold tinted glass out of the middle of 72nd street right out in front of Creighton Prep. The tornado had hit one of those all glass buildings up on Dodge and deposited a lot of the glass in a huge pile out in front of Creighton Prep and it was blocking 72nd St. I was a 9th grader at Nathan Hale and had volunteered to help clean up the tornado mess so I didn't have to go to school. You had to go up to K-mart on 72nd and Ames at 9 Am in the morning and they loaded you up on busses to go out into the Tornado zone to help clean up. The entire tornado hit zone was closed off and guarded by National Guard men with M-16s. I got on my bus at 8AM with 2 of my friends and they hauled us down 72nd in front of Creighton Prep and said start picking up that glass and throw it in the back of that dump truck. It sucked and was hard work. That glass was about an inch thick and weighted a lot. About 11AM a school bus pulls up and a guy jumps out and said he was from a church in Ralston and they had made a nice lunch for any volunteers that were hungry. My friends and I were not really hungry but anything sounded better then picking up that darn glass all day. So we got on the bus and they drove us out to a church in Ralston on 84th St between Q and L street. We sat down and ate a wonderful lunch and decided that instead of going back to Creighton Prep and picking up some more of that glass we would sneak out the back of the church and go do some sight seeing for the rest of the day. We started walking down 84th street and proceeded to walk on foot the entire path of the tornado all the way up to the Crossroads. It took us hours and we got to the Cross Roads about 4PM. Crossroads was closed and the parking lot had about 3 or 4 big food trucks handing out free food to volunteers. I walked over to a bank of free phones that had been set up for victims and called my Mom and told her to come pick us up. While we waited for my Mom we walked over to the food trucks and they were giving out free KFC and McDonalds and all kinds of food. It was a feast and we pigged out. About 4:40 my Mom shows up and we got in the car and told her how hard we had been working all day and that we could not wait to come back Friday and help some more! My Mom was working in the Emergency room at Immanuel Hospital the day of the tornado. That was when Immanuel was down on 30th & Ames still. My Mom saw one of the guys that got killed in the Tornado get brought in. He was cold dead with a 2 by 4 impaled in his chest. The guy had been standing on top of a gas station roof on 68th & Maple trying to get a better view of the coming Tornado!

I also remember this very well. I was a senior at Creighton Prep that year. We got out of all of our finals! Anyway, we also volunteered to help with the cleanup on May 7th. Never before and never since have I witnessed with my own two eyes such destruction. But it was also awesomely freakish. As we drove up to Prep from the west absolutely nothing looked disturbed or damaged until we arrived in the west parking lot, and took note of large pieces of the school roof hanging from the top of the building. It had been a very late spring, and all of the tulips and flowering crabapple trees on the grounds on the west side of the school were all still in full bloom, and totally undisturbed by the storm. There was no debris in the parking lot or lawn. But once we walked around to the east side of the building it looked like Hiroshima after the bomb had been dropped. Nothing was recognizable from before. Nothing, as far as you could see. Prep had a baseball field out front, surrounded by a chain link fence that ran across the entire back of the outfield. I remember staring in awe at the fence, that was completely rolled up in a ball. All of the fence posts were bent down to the ground. Debris was everywhere, and scattered amongs it were photographs, books, furniture and various other family heirlooms. Children's toys. Clothing. You name it. The sight was overwhelming. If we didn't all have so much work to do I'm sure we would all have just sat down and cried at the unbelievable destruction we were witnessing to the lives of our neighbors.

[GRANDPASMUCKER]

"Debris was everywhere, and scattered amongs it were photographs, books, furniture and various other family heirlooms. Children's toys. Clothing. You name it. The sight was overwhelming."


The first couple of nights after the tornado they claimed they had a huge problem with looters which was one of the reasons the National Guard was called in. I'm not sure that was really necessary. I saw first hand there was nothing left to steal. That tornado was a meat grinder and it destroyed everything it touched with no discrimination. It did not matter if it was made of plastic or wood or steel or cement when that tornado got through with it it was shredded and useless.

[Greg S]

I grew up right off of 72nd and Dodge. My friends house is now the Taco Bell on 70th and Dodge. We were lucky and had roof damage.

There was money all over my neighborhood from the First Westside Bank at 72nd and Dodge.

Greg

[GetUrban]

I was 11 at the time and remember going to the El Matador restaurant at 7425 Pacific with a friend and his mom a few days before the Tornado leveled the place. Our waitress was the 23 yr. old who they found dead in the restroom...one of the 3 fatalities claimed by the storm. I'll never forget that. They built a Godfathers Pizza at that location in 1976, which later became McKennas & the Lithuanian Bakery. I noticed the OWH stories all said the El Matador was at 78th & Pacific, but I searched the OWH archives from 1975 and there was a classified ad for a waitress in late April that listed 7425 Pacific as the address for El Matador. I also remember volunteering with the Boy Scouts to help with the cleanup in Benson Park. We picked up papers from the Ralston bank up there along with a lot of insulation and other debris. No cash that I can remember. I've taken the warnings pretty seriously ever since, and have been fascinated with the power nature can release. We had to go to Norris Jr. high that fall while Lewis and Clark was rebuilt. They replaced almost all of the windows with brick, except for about 2 30" wide windows per classroom. Before that the exterior of the building was almost all glass...1950s-1960s style.

[Greg S]

I got to Lewis and Clark not too long after it reopened. They totally overcompensated for the tornado by taking all the windows out. I was going to Belle Ryan at the time of the tornado.

Greg

[jessep28]

Coincidentally, the anniversary fell on the first Wednesday of the month when regular outdoor siren testing is conducted.

[GetUrban]

I got to Lewis and Clark not too long after it reopened. They totally overcompensated for the tornado by taking all the windows out. I was going to Belle Ryan at the time of the tornado.

Greg

Yeah, it was kind of like being in a basement, even on the second floor. The trend in the late 70s, 80s, & 90s was to fill-in earlier window walls with insulated panels except for a few windows, for energy efficiency. At L&C they added A/C so operable windows weren't needed for ventilation. But I do think part of it was an overreaction to the tornado. Now the trend is moving back more toward natural daylighting to provide a better learning environment. Belle Ryan and Western Hils Elementary schools are slated for demo and replacement as part of the recent OPS bond issue. It will be interesting to see what they come up with in the new designs.

With an F4 tornado it doesn't really matter if the Building is brick or glass...it's going to be gone. All the flying debris is what gets you.

[GRANDPASMUCKER]

On a side note for all you folks that went to Lewis & Clark Jr High. In the 70's my next door neighbor was a guy who was a teacher at Lewis & Clark named Robert Schicker. Schicker was a drunk who was a retired military Major fresh back from Vietnam and he was crazy and the mother of all bad neighbors. I remember when I was about 11 or 12 and I heard all heck breaking loose at my next door neighbors house. Like an idiot I just had to sneak over there to get a peak at the action. So I'm in the front of their house peeking around their garage looking in the front picture window to see whats going down. I see Schicker is running through his house on a rampage destroying it and chasing his wife and kids. All of a sudden Schicker looks out the living room picture window and sees me spying on him. Whats he do? He reaches over to the book shelf and grabs a big volume of the World Book Encylopedia and throws it right thru the picture window at me. I took off running and went and hid down the street a ways and watched the rest of the action there. A minute or two later Schickers two sons come running out the door and hes right behind them. They were about 16 &17 and they drove so they ran for their car. As Schicker is coming out the front door he rips the front door knob out of the door and throws it at his sons. One of his sons who was a pretty good baseball player picks up the door knob and throws it at Shicker and nails him right in the thigh and instantly draws blood. At this point I can hear police sirens coming and I got the heck out of there. 2 days later Schickers wife is giving my Mom and me a tour of the damage in the house. Schicker had totally destroyed the house especially the kitchen. Ripped the built in stove and dishwashers right out of the wall. The house looked like a tornado went through it. Schicker ended up moving back in with his wife shortly after and he lived for years torturing me and the neighborhood and no doubt those poor kids up at Lewis & Clark. He died of a heart attack at 68 in the late 80s I believe. It always freaked me out that a guy like that was an Omaha school teacher!

[Greg S]

I actually had him. Didn't he have a bum knee from WWII? I want to say he was a paratrooper.

He was different and very strict. I did learn quite a lot in this class though. He talk core 7th grade.

Greg

[GRANDPASMUCKER]

I actually had him. Didn't he have a bum knee from WWII? I want to say he was a paratrooper.

He was different and very strict. I did learn quite a lot in this class though. He talk core 7th grade.

Greg

I think he started out in Korea. His knee was bad from weighing about 250 pounds more then likely. He was different alright. He was hated by everyone in the neighborhood young and old. Even his own kids hated him. He was one of those guys who was telling all the parents in the neighborhood how lousy they were at raising their kids while his own kids ran the neighborhood and did whatever they felt like. Like the time his 16 year old son invited my 10 year old sister over for an hour or two to play doctor! Of course when my parents confronted Schicker about that he told them there was no need to call the police because he would handle it!