At least one person was killed and another critically injured as severe thunderstorms tore across eastern Nebraska over the weekend, authorities said.
Wind gusts up to 90 mph were recorded in the state both early Saturday and again early Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.
The deadly incident occurred Saturday morning in Two Rivers State Park, about 5 miles west of Omaha. A massive tree fell and crushed a vehicle with two people inside, the Waterloo Volunteer Fire Department stated in a Facebook post.
A woman inside the vehicle suffered significant injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, the fire department said. A man inside the vehicle also suffered life-threatening injuries and was rushed to a local hospital.
It took 90 minutes for rescuers to finally extract the man from the vehicle because the tree that fell was so large, according to the fire department.
Neither victim was publicly identified.
The storms also damaged two state prison facilities about 35 miles southwest in Lincoln, authorities said. While 387 prisoners were displaced, all inmates and staff were accounted for Sunday, according to state officials.
On Sunday afternoon, nearly 20,000 people remained without power in the state, according to data tracked by poweroutage.us. Most of the electricity issues stemmed from trees falling onto power lines.
The heftiest wind gusts were recorded at Lincoln’s airport and near Fairmont Saturday morning, with both locations clocking 91 mph gusts. On Sunday morning, the quickest winds were near Burr Oak and Superior, which both recorded 90 mph gusts.
With News Wire Services
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