Strong storms in eastern Nebraska early Saturday killed one person, seriously injured another in a state park and displaced hundreds of inmates after two prison housing units were damaged, officials said – as other midwest US states also braced for bad weather.
Meanwhile, more than 40 million Americans have been put on alert for dangerous heat and fire weather. In terms of fire weather, a blaze which prompted mandatory evacuations in two Colorado counties was of particular note.
With respect to the Nebraska storms, the Waterloo volunteer fire department was called to Two Rivers state park just before 7am on Saturday, where first responders found a vehicle crushed by a large cottonwood tree. The tree had toppled as the storm brought gusts higher than 80mph (129km/h) to the area, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). A woman in the vehicle was declared dead at the scene, while a man was trapped inside, the fire department said in a news release.
It took firefighters about 90 minutes to free the man because of the size and weight of the tree, the department said. Once free, the man was taken to an Omaha hospital with life-threatening injuries, the Waterloo fire chief, Travis Harlow, said.
The state park – a popular camping spot – is about 5 miles (8km) west of Omaha’s western border.
High winds caused widespread damage across eastern Nebraska, toppling trees, damaging roofs and pulling down electrical lines. Thousands of people were left without power in the immediate aftermath.
In the state capital of Lincoln, the storms damaged two housing units at the Nebraska state penitentiary, displacing 387 prisoners, the state department of correctional services said in a statement.
“There are no reported injuries, and all staff and incarcerated individuals are safe and accounted for,” the agency said.
Strong storms also moved through parts of eastern Wisconsin on Saturday, bringing gusts of 60mph to the state’s Door Peninsula, the NWS said. Flood warnings were put in effect in Milwaukee, Waukesha and Ozaukee counties. And flash flooding forced the closure of parts of interstates 43, 41 and 94, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. The outlet added that all runways except one at Milwaukee’s Mitchell international airport were reported flooded at one point, along with most taxiways and an underpass tunnel.
The weather service said more strong storms were possible across the nation’s midsection on Saturday night into Sunday, stretching from western Colorado into Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, northern Missouri and into Illinois and Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, grappling with extreme heat advisories was a region including Albuquerque, New Mexico; El Paso and Dallas, Texas; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Little Rock, Arkansas; Wichita, Kansas; Springfield, Missouri; and Kansas City, Missouri, as ABC News reported. And the network noted that places in Oregon, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming were put on alert for fire conditions.
Notably, after the Lee wildfire in Colorado grew by nearly 30,000 acres, officials in Rio Blanco and Garfield counties ordered mandatory evacuations as flames raced south, according to the Denver Post.
The earth’s ongoing climate crisis – fueled by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions – has been making extreme weather events more common, including strong storms, floods and wildfires.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
