May 6, 2025 • 37 mins
We hear a bit of how the '75 tornado coverage sounded on KFAB, and read your emailed memories of that day, before turning our attention to the latest DOGE storm that "attacked" Omaha.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Scott Vorgez. Here's a bit of that full report issued
here on eleven ten KFAB fifty years ago today. The
news anchor is Gene Piot.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
All National guardsman in the Oha.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Area, I've been asked to report to the armory immediately.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
All off duty of off.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Firemen have been asked to report for duty immediately. In
the eighty fourth and al Street area, which seemed to
probably take the front of the tornado and the most
widespread and massive damage. They went Worth apartments and the
structure that twents dollars Grandmother's lounge on the Golden Retel restaurant.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It was destroyed there.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
A car is strewn all.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Over that area on eleven ten kfab. Gene Piot there
with the report fifty years ago today, May sixth, nineteen
seventy five, the day that you can say, uh tornado.
As you'll hear in further reports here, it was actually
it was more like three tornadoes. As they took a
(01:04):
look later at some of the images that were captured
the radar, it was whatever they were, it combined for
a day where basically an ef size tornado. For more
local and recent reference, the tornado that went up through Elkorn, Bennington, Blair,
(01:26):
and on into Iowa. That tornado of just over a
year ago is an EF three. The tornado of fifty
years ago is an EF four. At the time that
that cut a swath kind of diagonal. Go golf course
to golf course on this one, and I believe that's accurate.
(01:47):
It's not just me as a golf addict using golf
courses as a reference point, but from what I've heard
about that tornado Lucy fifty years ago, it basically touched
down at Applewood Golf Course. Now, Johnny Goodman, I remember
hearing a report that that tornado touched down there, so
(02:09):
that would be off of Harrison in like, I don't
know about one hundredth Street and Harrison. It lifted the
water out of the pond on thirteen, which, as you know,
Lucy is little downhill Part three.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
How am I supposed to know that?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Well, wait a second, I'm well, I'm thinking about thirteen. Yeah,
at thirteen. Now, at that time, I think they switched
the nines. Be that as it may for today's parlance.
About one hundredth and Harrison, you have the thirteenth hole, now,
Johnny Goodman formerly Applewood it lifted the water out of
(02:46):
the pond in front of that part three and then
dumped it back in the pond. At least that's what
the guy is waiting on the tea box said, like,
I think this is probably gonna pass pretty quickly. So
that's where it started. It cuts through Ralston at about
eighty fourth and l Street's Grandmother's restaurant, the Ralston Bank,
(03:09):
goes on towards Nebraska Furniture Mart seventy second, Farnham area
between Farnham and Pacific, and then basically lifts out of
Omaha at Benson golf Course, which is up seventy second.
It was on the east side of Benson golf Course,
(03:31):
so it dropped in to see what was going on
at the city. I don't know if it was a
city on golf course. Anyway, it dropped in to see
what was going on in Applewood, and it lifted at Benson,
went golf course to golf course and cut a diagonal.
That was the costliest tornado of its time in terms
(03:52):
of rebuilding, taking out a lot.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
If it wasn't a school, what rebuilt.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
That, well, I don't know, you're right, I don't know
that they rebuilt what was there. I mean that path
has since been rebuilt with something.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Mostly there's some homes in Benson that were that are
still empty lots really not a lot.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Really, I didn't know that well. In terms of the
bigger buildings and businesses, Ralston Bank, Grandmother's, Bergen, Mercy Hospital,
Nebraska Furniture Mart Wolf Brothers. I mean, it was certainly
it just cut through this town and you look at
the devastation and you see what had happened after that.
(04:41):
We'll continue with some of the coverage as you heard
it that day fifty years ago, the late afternoon on
May sixth, nineteen seventy five. Once again, here's Gene Piet.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Jerry Coldwell, at employee of Morgan Equipment at seventy six
Don f Street, saw what he said was three tornado
at one time. And here is what he told us.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
We were standing outside our front door at f Street
there looking out over the southwest, and we saw these
three tornadoes that were just dancing up and down, and
all of a sudden we saw them all three dip
down and they were just goinging back and forth, and
gradually they got bigger and went into one funnel cloud
and sud made, the debris started picking up, and we
(05:26):
all hit it for cover.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
You talk about that kind of monstrosity cutting through a
metropolitan a highly populated metropolitan area, and the costliest tornado
in history at the time. Fifty years ago today, three
people lost their lives. There was a young woman who
(05:50):
was in a bathroom of I don't remember if it
was business or her the dwelling the apartment she died.
And an elderly woman who was taken right out of
her home. And then there's the story that has gone
(06:10):
back and forth over the years about a guy standing
outside and there was What I heard for a long
time was that this guy got up on the roof
of a gas station to look at it and died.
Since that, there have been people since then that said, no,
that didn't happen. He was just caught outside by it.
(06:36):
The latest report I have on that gentleman is he
was waiting for the bus. So he was the third
person to die. I don't know necessarily in that order,
but the fact that I mean three is terrible for
those families. It's terrible for the community, even fifty years later.
But I mean, my goodness, three that's it for that
(06:58):
monster of a tornado. It's amazing. And we started this
off with if this was your childhood, and then some
of the report Channel three KMTV three News Now has
a tremendous story. They talk with a guy named Mike
who lived in the Piple Park area seventy seventh and
just south of Center Street, and he's for, I mean,
(07:20):
fifty years ago, that was his childhood, and he notes
that it was It started off as a beautiful day,
there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and they get
out of school. The tornado hit at about four point thirty.
School would have been out about an hour and a
half before then, and there was plenty of heads up
that there were storms coming, and the community was already
(07:41):
on edge because there was a smaller tornado that had
hit about a month and a half before that around Omaha.
So I mean we're Tornado Alley.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
A month and a half before that. Yeah, that would
put it in February March March.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Yeah, that's early, Yeah, late March, that's a little bit
or not, but it's not. And so people were saying,
all right, let's obviously we get take these storms seriously.
They say their storm's coming. So this guy, this kid,
Mike says, they canceled baseball practice after school and we
were all mad, like, why, it's a nice day. The
(08:16):
weather's fine, which at around three.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
So you kids, you guys learned that early.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Then right around three o'clock, that's accurate. The weather was fine,
the storm was coming in, and Mike, I don't know
if we know how old he was at the time,
but I'm picturing an elementary school. Oh no, sorry, he's
an older kid, he says, senior in high school. So
(08:43):
senior in high school, seventeen, eighteen years old. And he says,
So we go home and I'm hanging out at the home.
My dad's got the police radio on and they were
tracking the storms. And then it came to where before,
he says, before we closed the door, as we were
watching the storm coming in. The last thing he remembers.
(09:06):
And as it's different thinking about a kid that's about
eighteen rather than a kid that's about eight eighteen, he
knew what he was seeing. He has a real strong
memory of it. He said. The last thing he saw
before his dad slammed the door was the tornado hitting
Westgate Elementary, which was completely destroyed. The pause here is
(09:31):
if this storm had shown up a couple of hours earlier,
and nineteen seventy five school being what it was, they're like,
all right, kids, get in the coat room and duck
your heads. I think we all know the potential for
what the end of that scenario may have looked like.
(09:53):
As it was. A couple hours later, school was out,
kids were home. Dad slams the door and he sees
the torn NATO hitting Westgate Elementary. Moments later. They rushed
into the bathroom because their home there didn't have a basement.
He says, just the whole house was shaking. It was
an extremely violent rumble, and he's holding on to his dad,
(10:16):
who's holding the door and yelling to his family. It's okay,
we're all right, We're all right. He's yelling at over
the sound of this tornado hitting the house, and he says,
my dad saved us, got us all in there. He says,
we're all going in here. Get your cushions, and we're
going in the bathroom. So they're getting couch, cushions, pillows,
whatever they can grab in the bathroom of their home.
(10:39):
Everyone in his house was okay. They weren't among the
one hundred plus people who had to seek medical attention.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
But you know what else is remarkable about the timing
of this is that that was an era that most
of the moms were home, so you didn't have nearly
as many kids today. If that happened today, you would
have thousands of kids at home alone.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Right right, And because it was but I mean four
point thirty, there were some people who just hunkered down
at work, like my mom at the Ralston Bank which
was hit dead on by this tornado at eighty fourth
and l. They just they mean they went down into
(11:30):
the vaults. So my mom's down in the vaults pocketing
as much money as she can get. I mean, right,
mean what else do you use a family tree? Yeah?
You know she They're all down there in the voult
area of the bank. And it was you know, to
come up and look up where you normally see the
ceiling of the bank and instead you see the sky bewildering.
(11:54):
Here's a bit more how that hurt entil, how that
sounded here on eleven to ten kfab And in terms
of the timing of the storm.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Daylight will be gone shortly after eight thirty tonight. Prior
to that time, please and rescue squad members must search houses,
get the gas line shut off, and get the injured
to hospitals. Police are already attempting to light up emergency
lights for.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Tonight once again. Gene Piot, they're reporting on eleven ten
kfab had this happen half hour forty five minutes later
when people were trying to get home from work. Again.
I mean, there's there's so much almost with this storm.
(12:40):
In fact, let's go to one more gene Piot report
on that front.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
We'll continue with R and up. But so we have
received them from the past forty five minutes or so
concerning people who are reported to be safe. Eight shot
and general manager Dick Beckers is all the race fats
and attract them, should want to say they'll become there
just three sixty six ptistrating people are in the block
(13:06):
building at the Ladder Tree, a part the five on
seventy Sixte Piers was hit by the tornado that the
manager says go injuryes as far as the coming about
one hundred and ten the complex. A lot of one
hundred students reported saved in the basement at Omar's Northwest
High School.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah, I don't know how much of that you can
make out, but you're I mean you're talking about how
you had major I mean areas where you had a
lot of people gathered. Ex. Sarmon is one. The tornado
just missed that. Crossroads is another one, And the tornado
(13:48):
just missed that. You think, well it hit you know
Nebraska Furniture Mark. Let me tell you in nineteen seventy five,
Nebraska Furniture, it wasn't what you know it today. It
was a good store. It wasn't a I mean it
was a it was big and nice selection and all that.
(14:11):
But in nineteen seventy five, it wasn't the giant, sprawling
complex with thousands and thousands of people there anytime like
you know it today. In nineteen eighty five, I remember
going through like we got to go get a dining
room table. Oh, we're gonna go see that lady on
the scooter and Missus B's tooling around and all that.
And it was big, but I mean, it was not
(14:33):
nearly what it is today. But Crossroads again a bit
of a dated reference. Oh, the Crossroads Mall was huge,
tons of people in their second biggest mall. I mean,
it was one of the biggest populated centers in Omaha
on any given day, and you're like that place where
there's just a grated dirt. Yes, it was quite the
(14:55):
hop in place in nineteen seventy five, and the tornado
just miss that. One more report here as we heard
it fifty years ago today on eleven ten KFAB.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Now I managed to get.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
Into the access road that goes right in front of
the Rolfson Bank and was what was launch Grandmother's Lounge.
I can't I can't even begin to describe it to
Eddie Grandmother's Lounge and the restaurant are gone except for
a shell. The Rolston Bank has seventy damaged the group.
The group has gone and he was over out. The
sign sign has gone. Coach Trumps have to go away.
(15:34):
I would guess by now fifteen.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Records moretical that is eleven ten KFABS, and I apologize
if I'm getting the pronunciation wrong. Joe Cassiopo, I believe,
was on that report live here on news radio eleven
ten KFAB in the wake of that tornado doing the
damage it did at eighty fourth and L which is
(15:56):
incredibly personal to me. There was a young couple that
just started dating named Larry and Joyce, and Larry was
at one Ralston Bank branch trying to get over to
the one at eighty fourth and L where his girlfriend
Joyce was on his motorcycle dodging debris and seeing the
(16:19):
roof torn off the place. Feared the worst as he
went in there. Everyone inside the bank was okay, including Joyce.
They got married that next winter, and.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
The story would have been way cooler. Though they got
married the next day.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Yeah, several several months later, a photo album that had
been full of the images of cars toppled over and
the bank roof gone at the Ralston Bank and the
devastation there. Several months after that, the photo album was
then pictured had adorable baby pictures of a young man
named Scott Voorhees, very cute, and the and the devastation
(16:55):
and carnage that was soon cool. Not so cute, no,
but that was that was my childhood, looking through those
photo albums and seeing within just a couple pages of
each other tornado damage and then here's Scott in a bassinet.
And as such, you know, hearing my parents talk about
(17:17):
that story, especially every year, and of course seeing those
images would be in my head anytime at Bloomfield Elementary School,
It's like, okay, it's time to do the annual tornado
drill where you all go in the coat room and
duck your head. And I'm thinking, I saw the devastation
of that seventy five tornado in pictures. I don't know
how we survived this hanging out here under Brian's jacket
(17:42):
in the coat room. So my entire childhood was full
of every spring thinking here we go, this is going
to be a big tornado.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
I think that that's pretty accurate for a lot of
people that were young at that time. I remember in
seventy six there was another tornado and we were just
little kids, and we were just absolutely terrified, and we're
living in an apartment at that time and had to
go into the batht I've been It turned out okay.
My mother and my sister were at Bergen, so they
got a front row seat during seventy five.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Yeah. I remember being a little kid in my backyard
playing the sirens go off, the wind whips up, and
we were playing in a sandbox, and so a bunch
of sand got in my eyes and so I temporarily
couldn't really see and I was just sure that on
the other side of those eyelids was a monster of
a tornado.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
That's so sad.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Yeah, And I'm sure that I treated it with my
little sister there and my friends. I'm sure I was
all right, nobody panic, It's all going to be fine.
We're just going to go in the house. I'm sure
that's how I I'm sure, Actually my memory of that
might have evolved a little bit of panic. I remember
it as though it were yesterday. And anytime you hear
(18:57):
the sirens go off, I'm right back there in those
oh yeah, those velcrow shoes.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
And you've got a whole new class of on the class,
a whole new group of people from last year that
are right there in that that same just terrorizing. Yes,
those sounds probably just terrorizing them, yes.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Yeap, for those for those kids especially, that's you know,
that's that's why we start off currently, start off each
hour of the program with a little bit of if
this was your childhood, and it's a bit from a
song or a TV commercial or cartoon or movie or
whatever from usually usually that period of late seventies, early eighties.
(19:36):
We go mid eighties, sometimes early nineties on that because
that's the stuff that stamps itself on your brain sticks
there forever. You know, no one's saying like if this
was your mid to late thirties, like I don't remember
it was. It was a blur and it was it
didn't seem that important at the time. So so that's
(20:00):
that's why we do that. Fifty years ago today, the
DANEA four tornado ripped through for what is for many
of us, our hometown Fox News update in just a moment.
What do we panic about today? We might have some
(20:21):
local groups losing some federal funding. What's this about? Why
would this happen? I'll tell you next. Scott Byes talked
at the start of the program about how fifty years
ago today, May sixth, nineteen seventy five was at the
time the costliest tornado in American history, and it tore
(20:42):
Omaha in half diagonally from the old Applewood now Johnny
Goodman Golf Course kind of diagonally and then kind of
cutting up north on seventy second towards Benson Golf Course
and in its path a bank, a beloved restaurant, Hut
Nebraska Furniture, Mark Bergen, Mercy Hospital, Wolf Brothers, and many
(21:05):
other businesses and homes. Three people died this day fifty
years ago, which is amazing considering how monstrous that tornado was.
Got some emails here in the Zonker's Custom Woods inbox
Scott atkfab dot com. John started us off saying, I
(21:26):
played at Applewood that morning, and you could tell it
had the makings of a stormy day. Yes, it was
mostly clear, but the humidity was very high, and forecasters
predicted a chance for severe weather later in the day.
How right they were, by the way, I on thirteen,
I hit a five iron to within seven feet of
the cup and three putted for bogie and it bothers
(21:48):
me to this day. That's from John, I added the
last part. He didn't include those details. But if he's
a guy and a golfer worth his salt, that wouldn't
be included in the email. Yeah, that's why they'd canceled
after school activities that day. They hustled kids home after school, saying,
all right, we got about an hour and a half
(22:09):
until they say some weather's coming in. I started off
with the story here. K MTV came TV three has
this story about a kid named Mike, high school kid
going why are they canceling baseball practice? It's fine. Hour
and a half later, he's in his in a bathroom
in his house because his home near Pitple Park didn't
have a basement, and his dad was yelling at the
(22:32):
family over the siren sound of that thunderous tornado. It's okay,
We're gonna be okay. By the way, I believe the
neighbors in that Westgate area, it was Westgate Elementary School
in that area are gathering at six point thirty this
after this evening, they newly renovated the playground there at
(22:55):
Pitple Park. Not since what happened fifty years ago. We
finally got around to it. We put some swings up.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Now they.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
They got a newly renovated playground and they're launching that
and having a gathering there in that Westgate neighborhood near
seventy seventh in Center at six point thirty this evening,
this email from different John said Scott I was fourteen
years old waiting to go to a soccer game starting
(23:29):
or staring west out of the locker room doors at
Ralston High School. I saw and Ralston High School in
seventy five was where Ralston High School is now, having
recently moved from where the Ralston Middle School was, I
think largely spared. I'm sure there was some damage to
the middle school right across the football field from the
old Ralston Bank and Grandmother's there at eighty fourth and
(23:50):
l Anyway. John says, I'm fourteen years old waiting to
go to a soccer game. Staring west out of the
locker room doors at Ralston High School, I saw one
tornado touchdown, then two others surrounding it. With the initial
tornado touchdown, I thought, geez, why are those birds flying around?
Then later realized it was debris from roofs. We all
(24:14):
ran into the gymnasium as we were making our way
to other parts of the building. As the tornado came by,
you could hear the wind blowing over the roof. We
were very lucky it didn't sustain a direct hit and
caused that roof to collapse. Lots of screaming as it was.
It just went to the north of Ralston High School
to the apartments and then Grandmothers and the rest of
(24:35):
the way through the city. The tornado hit between my
house and the school, so driving home was frightening because
I didn't know if my house was still there. Remember,
in nineteen seventy five, cell phone coverage was spotty. Just
seeing if Lucy's paying attention.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Oh you know, I'm always listening to you.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
What did I just say?
Speaker 4 (24:55):
You said that cell phone was spotty in seventy five,
house was there?
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Yeah, it was very, very spotty.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
Don't test me.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
That's because there were no cell phones in nineteen seventy five.
And it's a hymn. It's John. Come on, fine, this
is a test one ear all right, that's fine. The
email sums up. He said I didn't know if my
house was still there, which was a real thing because
a lot of people were hunkered down at work and
then they were trying to get home, wondering if they
(25:27):
were going to have a home to go home to.
So we had to detour into Ralston, then back towards
ninety third and Q. I saw live wires laying in
water that was obviously still hot, as well as the
extensive damage to homes and businesses. It was a crazy time.
In the aftermath, they called out the National Guard. There
were helicopters flying over for days. Even though we had
(25:50):
those three fatalities, our city was very lucky. Amen to that. John,
thank you very much for the email, and says the
Downtowner Motel at seventy second and Dodge is wiped out.
Underneath that hotel was a daycare center where I took
my daughter Mary when I took classes at UNO. Thank heaven,
(26:10):
she was not there that day, but as I drove
by there shortly after the tornado, my hands shook and
I felt sick when I saw the devastation. Amazingly, all
the children were spared. That is from Ann sent to
Scott at kfab dot com. A few more emails here,
(26:31):
Bill says, my physics teacher told me that cars were
parked at Nebraska Furniture Mart and the tornadoes pulled the
windshields from the cars and planted the glass into adjacent buildings. Yeah,
along those lines, Tom says, I was farming near Mapleton, Iowa,
(26:53):
during the Omaha tornado. That's about ninety miles north. A
couple days later, I saw paper land in the field.
It was canceled checks from Omaha. Various businesses. The bank.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Right out of Ralston, Straight out of Ralston.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Which is also the story of my life, like straight
out of Compton, except a little different. Not much little different,
And let's see one more. Rob says nineteen eighty we
lived in Lincoln, and my first grade teacher said that
Lincoln sits in a valley, so we didn't have to
worry about a tornado. It would go right over the top. Later,
(27:37):
after we moved to Omaha and I became more aware
with age, I realized that the Westgate neighborhood we talked
about also sat in a valley, and it got hammered.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
It wasn't a big enough valley to hold an entire city.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
A teacher, is this the science teaching? A first grade
teacher said, Lincoln sits in a valley, so the tornado
would go right over the top of Lincoln.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Now, you cannot give teachers a hard time. Back in
the seventies, we still had great curriculum and they had
great students that would listen to teachers.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
And so, oh, I know, it's crazy. Nineteen seventy five,
Pluto was still considered a planet. We only had five
oceans rather than the I think thirteen or fourteen we
have now.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
And is it that many?
Speaker 1 (28:23):
No?
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (28:23):
And also it's so dumb. There were only two genders
back then. Wait, I know we only had two genders.
We have evolved. We have evolved so much then, which
gets us into this next topic of conversation. And even
though I've still got emails piling up, how many ninety
(28:44):
three unread emails in the last five minutes, So I
imagine we'll spot the rest of the show with some
of these emails about the tornado seventy five fifty years
ago today. That's why we're talking about it. But up next,
we got some local people complaining that apparently Trump and
Elon have cut off the taxpayer dole out. And I'll
(29:05):
tell you who's saying what next. Scott voices News Radio
eleven ten kfab National Endowment of the Arts is pulling
back the reins on some of the whether it's grants
or taxpayer dollars or whatever. They're a little tighter with
who gets what now. And it doesn't specifically say here
(29:27):
that this is Trump and Elon Musk, but some of
the people involved here who are not getting some of
this money, they say this has to do with Trump
and Elon Musk. The story from k ETV News Watch seven.
Multiple Omaha theater and arts organizations learned over the weekend
that the federal grants that they'd previously been awarded are
(29:51):
set to be terminated at the end of this month.
So what does this look like. Well, for the Omaha
Conservatory of Music, we got a twenty five thousand dollars
grant for its String Sprouts program for the upcoming twenty
twenty five and twenty twenty six school year. But they
learn they'll no longer receive that grant, and the director says, well,
(30:12):
we're gonna have to make some tough decisions, But then
she said the program will continue. We received a one
million dollar philanthropic support for the program. So it sounds
like you're gonna be okay without taxpayer funds. Sounds like
you've got donors who are seeing the value in a
(30:33):
program like this and are willing to fund it. Maybe
maybe that's how it could go. Maybe that's how it
should go. By the way, string programs and so forth,
music programs are available in the schools too. It's not
like they're just slapping viola's out of kids' hands. Hi,
are you an underprivileged youth who wants to play the flute? Yes?
(30:56):
Slap nope? Elon says no. Oh, now here's another group
that lost some of their funding. I don't know how
much money they were set to get. I've never heard
of this group, which doesn't mean that they aren't great
at what they do. It's called the Great Plains Theater Commons.
(31:18):
They're supporting their upcoming twentieth Annuel of twentieth Annuel New
Play Festival later this month, and they said, we're going
to keep doing it even though we got our money
cut off. What is the Great Planes Theater Commons. Well,
I went to their website and the first thing I
see is Black Lives Matter in Omaha. We have witnessed
(31:44):
the twenty twenty killing of James Skurlock and how the
white man who shot him walked free. That told me
everything I needed to know about the Great Planes Theater Commons,
which says that we shore new stories with the world,
and a statement the director says, or the arts director
(32:06):
for this group says, the actions against refugees, immigrants, the poor, students, journalists, artists, scientists,
federal workers, nonprofits, libraries, universities, the LGBTQIA community, the press, museums,
and the arts, among others, are attacks against everyone in
our country. No matter what the Trump administration does to us.
(32:28):
We will continue to support storytellers and share stories because
that is the work that we love and is the
best way we can be of service. It's interesting that
it points out on their website that they are striving
for cultural equity, and it says, as a currently sixty
percent white staff, we vow to increase our diversity until
(32:51):
a standard of equity is achieved. And it says currently
sixty percent white staff with three full time and two
part time members. Okay, get rid of a white guy.
And I didn't have to click on the picture to know,
but I did verify that the artistic director making all
these statements and saying we vow to be culturally equitable
(33:14):
and we hate the Trump administration and black lives matter.
I knew it before I clicked in his picture. Guilty,
white guy, Super guilty, white guy?
Speaker 4 (33:24):
How does that happen?
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Which is fine, but it's funny that he says, we
vow to achieve cultural equity. All right, step down? It
seems like it's the best thing you can do for
black people, is it? To step down? After all, you
said that the white man who shot and killed this
young man walked free, which is factually inaccurate. Otherwise known
(33:50):
as a blatant lie. And you know it, this group
lost their funding. Ah Now, if they want to do
the work and put on their plays and so forth,
and people pay to see them, I hope that they're
able to stand on their feet. I do support local artists,
even if I don't necessarily agree with their political point
(34:11):
of view. But I don't agree with this group's political
point of view, and either do they. You know, guilty,
White step down if you don't think that you're doing
the right thing. So that group is one of those
that lost some money. Talked about the nineteen seventy five
tornado fifty years ago on this date as basically dropping
(34:32):
down at Johnny Applewood golf Course former Applewood currently Johnny Goodman. I,
as a Ralston kid, call it Johnny Applewood drop down
at Applewood and lift it at Benson golf Course. And
I mentioned that just as a point of reference a
few times. But there's one other golf course in the
(34:53):
news today as of yesterday, it looks like Dodge Riverside
lives they had talked about. In case you're not familiar
with Dodge Riverside golf course, it's right there by Harris casino,
Like if you go to a concert at stir Concert
Cove Dodge. Riverside golf Course is right across the street
(35:14):
from Harris's Casino, and so they wanted to fill in
that whole eighteen whole golf course and do a neighborhood there,
but the city council rejected the plan. Three two, it
remains a golf course. Yay, Why are you yaying?
Speaker 4 (35:33):
Oh, I read this story and I'm just I was
really upset about it because that is an awful lot
of beautiful green space right along the river. Why the
world would you build homes there?
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Really?
Speaker 3 (35:47):
That?
Speaker 1 (35:47):
But I don't think Riverside has a problem with flooding.
If you're you're just saying green space.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
Green space. Ye, flooding is definitely an it.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
But there's plenty of space. If you want to walk
up and down the river, you just cross to Bob
Carry pedestrian bridge, walk all up and down the river.
There's plenty of place to do it. You can't just
go walking across the golf course unless you're a paying golf.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
I understand that, but why muck up the scenery with
a bunch of more buildings.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
They're homes though, people need a place.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
To live, live some place where you wouldn't have to
worry about flooding.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
I don't think that they're worried about flooding right there.
It flooded last year Riverside. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
Well it dark did?
Speaker 1 (36:31):
I don't know. Here's what I thought about. First of all,
what about the people that bought the annual pass that
allows them allows them to play Shoreline and Dodge Riverside.
You get two golf courses with the prize of one.
Do they give half the money back if they suddenly
shut one down? How's that work? The other thing I
thought was, are the people if they moved into a
neighborhood where that golf courses, are they going to be saying, look,
(36:53):
we don't want stir concert Code to have concerts anymore.
It's too loud. We're trying to sleep over here across
the street, and maybe you shouldn't have built a house
across from a great concert venue. But it's all done.
They rejected it. Scott Voyes Mornings nine to eleven, Our
News Radio eleven ten KFAB
Scott Vorgez. Here's a bit of that full report issued
here on eleven ten KFAB fifty years ago today. The
news anchor is Gene Piot.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
All National guardsman in the Oha.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Area, I've been asked to report to the armory immediately.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
All off duty of off.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Firemen have been asked to report for duty immediately. In
the eighty fourth and al Street area, which seemed to
probably take the front of the tornado and the most
widespread and massive damage. They went Worth apartments and the
structure that twents dollars Grandmother's lounge on the Golden Retel restaurant.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It was destroyed there.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
A car is strewn all.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Over that area on eleven ten kfab. Gene Piot there
with the report fifty years ago today, May sixth, nineteen
seventy five, the day that you can say, uh tornado.
As you'll hear in further reports here, it was actually
it was more like three tornadoes. As they took a
(01:04):
look later at some of the images that were captured
the radar, it was whatever they were, it combined for
a day where basically an ef size tornado. For more
local and recent reference, the tornado that went up through Elkorn, Bennington, Blair,
(01:26):
and on into Iowa. That tornado of just over a
year ago is an EF three. The tornado of fifty
years ago is an EF four. At the time that
that cut a swath kind of diagonal. Go golf course
to golf course on this one, and I believe that's accurate.
(01:47):
It's not just me as a golf addict using golf
courses as a reference point, but from what I've heard
about that tornado Lucy fifty years ago, it basically touched
down at Applewood Golf Course. Now, Johnny Goodman, I remember
hearing a report that that tornado touched down there, so
(02:09):
that would be off of Harrison in like, I don't
know about one hundredth Street and Harrison. It lifted the
water out of the pond on thirteen, which, as you know,
Lucy is little downhill Part three.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
How am I supposed to know that?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Well, wait a second, I'm well, I'm thinking about thirteen. Yeah,
at thirteen. Now, at that time, I think they switched
the nines. Be that as it may for today's parlance.
About one hundredth and Harrison, you have the thirteenth hole, now,
Johnny Goodman formerly Applewood it lifted the water out of
(02:46):
the pond in front of that part three and then
dumped it back in the pond. At least that's what
the guy is waiting on the tea box said, like,
I think this is probably gonna pass pretty quickly. So
that's where it started. It cuts through Ralston at about
eighty fourth and l Street's Grandmother's restaurant, the Ralston Bank,
(03:09):
goes on towards Nebraska Furniture Mart seventy second, Farnham area
between Farnham and Pacific, and then basically lifts out of
Omaha at Benson golf Course, which is up seventy second.
It was on the east side of Benson golf Course,
(03:31):
so it dropped in to see what was going on
at the city. I don't know if it was a
city on golf course. Anyway, it dropped in to see
what was going on in Applewood, and it lifted at Benson,
went golf course to golf course and cut a diagonal.
That was the costliest tornado of its time in terms
(03:52):
of rebuilding, taking out a lot.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
If it wasn't a school, what rebuilt.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
That, well, I don't know, you're right, I don't know
that they rebuilt what was there. I mean that path
has since been rebuilt with something.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Mostly there's some homes in Benson that were that are
still empty lots really not a lot.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Really, I didn't know that well. In terms of the
bigger buildings and businesses, Ralston Bank, Grandmother's, Bergen, Mercy Hospital,
Nebraska Furniture Mart Wolf Brothers. I mean, it was certainly
it just cut through this town and you look at
the devastation and you see what had happened after that.
(04:41):
We'll continue with some of the coverage as you heard
it that day fifty years ago, the late afternoon on
May sixth, nineteen seventy five. Once again, here's Gene Piet.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Jerry Coldwell, at employee of Morgan Equipment at seventy six
Don f Street, saw what he said was three tornado
at one time. And here is what he told us.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
We were standing outside our front door at f Street
there looking out over the southwest, and we saw these
three tornadoes that were just dancing up and down, and
all of a sudden we saw them all three dip
down and they were just goinging back and forth, and
gradually they got bigger and went into one funnel cloud
and sud made, the debris started picking up, and we
(05:26):
all hit it for cover.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
You talk about that kind of monstrosity cutting through a
metropolitan a highly populated metropolitan area, and the costliest tornado
in history at the time. Fifty years ago today, three
people lost their lives. There was a young woman who
(05:50):
was in a bathroom of I don't remember if it
was business or her the dwelling the apartment she died.
And an elderly woman who was taken right out of
her home. And then there's the story that has gone
(06:10):
back and forth over the years about a guy standing
outside and there was What I heard for a long
time was that this guy got up on the roof
of a gas station to look at it and died.
Since that, there have been people since then that said, no,
that didn't happen. He was just caught outside by it.
(06:36):
The latest report I have on that gentleman is he
was waiting for the bus. So he was the third
person to die. I don't know necessarily in that order,
but the fact that I mean three is terrible for
those families. It's terrible for the community, even fifty years later.
But I mean, my goodness, three that's it for that
(06:58):
monster of a tornado. It's amazing. And we started this
off with if this was your childhood, and then some
of the report Channel three KMTV three News Now has
a tremendous story. They talk with a guy named Mike
who lived in the Piple Park area seventy seventh and
just south of Center Street, and he's for, I mean,
(07:20):
fifty years ago, that was his childhood, and he notes
that it was It started off as a beautiful day,
there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and they get
out of school. The tornado hit at about four point thirty.
School would have been out about an hour and a
half before then, and there was plenty of heads up
that there were storms coming, and the community was already
(07:41):
on edge because there was a smaller tornado that had
hit about a month and a half before that around Omaha.
So I mean we're Tornado Alley.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
A month and a half before that. Yeah, that would
put it in February March March.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Yeah, that's early, Yeah, late March, that's a little bit
or not, but it's not. And so people were saying,
all right, let's obviously we get take these storms seriously.
They say their storm's coming. So this guy, this kid,
Mike says, they canceled baseball practice after school and we
were all mad, like, why, it's a nice day. The
(08:16):
weather's fine, which at around three.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
So you kids, you guys learned that early.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Then right around three o'clock, that's accurate. The weather was fine,
the storm was coming in, and Mike, I don't know
if we know how old he was at the time,
but I'm picturing an elementary school. Oh no, sorry, he's
an older kid, he says, senior in high school. So
(08:43):
senior in high school, seventeen, eighteen years old. And he says,
So we go home and I'm hanging out at the home.
My dad's got the police radio on and they were
tracking the storms. And then it came to where before,
he says, before we closed the door, as we were
watching the storm coming in. The last thing he remembers.
(09:06):
And as it's different thinking about a kid that's about
eighteen rather than a kid that's about eight eighteen, he
knew what he was seeing. He has a real strong
memory of it. He said. The last thing he saw
before his dad slammed the door was the tornado hitting
Westgate Elementary, which was completely destroyed. The pause here is
(09:31):
if this storm had shown up a couple of hours earlier,
and nineteen seventy five school being what it was, they're like,
all right, kids, get in the coat room and duck
your heads. I think we all know the potential for
what the end of that scenario may have looked like.
(09:53):
As it was. A couple hours later, school was out,
kids were home. Dad slams the door and he sees
the torn NATO hitting Westgate Elementary. Moments later. They rushed
into the bathroom because their home there didn't have a basement.
He says, just the whole house was shaking. It was
an extremely violent rumble, and he's holding on to his dad,
(10:16):
who's holding the door and yelling to his family. It's okay,
we're all right, We're all right. He's yelling at over
the sound of this tornado hitting the house, and he says,
my dad saved us, got us all in there. He says,
we're all going in here. Get your cushions, and we're
going in the bathroom. So they're getting couch, cushions, pillows,
whatever they can grab in the bathroom of their home.
(10:39):
Everyone in his house was okay. They weren't among the
one hundred plus people who had to seek medical attention.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
But you know what else is remarkable about the timing
of this is that that was an era that most
of the moms were home, so you didn't have nearly
as many kids today. If that happened today, you would
have thousands of kids at home alone.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Right right, And because it was but I mean four
point thirty, there were some people who just hunkered down
at work, like my mom at the Ralston Bank which
was hit dead on by this tornado at eighty fourth
and l. They just they mean they went down into
(11:30):
the vaults. So my mom's down in the vaults pocketing
as much money as she can get. I mean, right,
mean what else do you use a family tree? Yeah?
You know she They're all down there in the voult
area of the bank. And it was you know, to
come up and look up where you normally see the
ceiling of the bank and instead you see the sky bewildering.
(11:54):
Here's a bit more how that hurt entil, how that
sounded here on eleven to ten kfab And in terms
of the timing of the storm.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Daylight will be gone shortly after eight thirty tonight. Prior
to that time, please and rescue squad members must search houses,
get the gas line shut off, and get the injured
to hospitals. Police are already attempting to light up emergency
lights for.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Tonight once again. Gene Piot, they're reporting on eleven ten
kfab had this happen half hour forty five minutes later
when people were trying to get home from work. Again.
I mean, there's there's so much almost with this storm.
(12:40):
In fact, let's go to one more gene Piot report
on that front.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
We'll continue with R and up. But so we have
received them from the past forty five minutes or so
concerning people who are reported to be safe. Eight shot
and general manager Dick Beckers is all the race fats
and attract them, should want to say they'll become there
just three sixty six ptistrating people are in the block
(13:06):
building at the Ladder Tree, a part the five on
seventy Sixte Piers was hit by the tornado that the
manager says go injuryes as far as the coming about
one hundred and ten the complex. A lot of one
hundred students reported saved in the basement at Omar's Northwest
High School.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah, I don't know how much of that you can
make out, but you're I mean you're talking about how
you had major I mean areas where you had a
lot of people gathered. Ex. Sarmon is one. The tornado
just missed that. Crossroads is another one, And the tornado
(13:48):
just missed that. You think, well it hit you know
Nebraska Furniture Mark. Let me tell you in nineteen seventy five,
Nebraska Furniture, it wasn't what you know it today. It
was a good store. It wasn't a I mean it
was a it was big and nice selection and all that.
(14:11):
But in nineteen seventy five, it wasn't the giant, sprawling
complex with thousands and thousands of people there anytime like
you know it today. In nineteen eighty five, I remember
going through like we got to go get a dining
room table. Oh, we're gonna go see that lady on
the scooter and Missus B's tooling around and all that.
And it was big, but I mean, it was not
(14:33):
nearly what it is today. But Crossroads again a bit
of a dated reference. Oh, the Crossroads Mall was huge,
tons of people in their second biggest mall. I mean,
it was one of the biggest populated centers in Omaha
on any given day, and you're like that place where
there's just a grated dirt. Yes, it was quite the
(14:55):
hop in place in nineteen seventy five, and the tornado
just miss that. One more report here as we heard
it fifty years ago today on eleven ten KFAB.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Now I managed to get.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
Into the access road that goes right in front of
the Rolfson Bank and was what was launch Grandmother's Lounge.
I can't I can't even begin to describe it to
Eddie Grandmother's Lounge and the restaurant are gone except for
a shell. The Rolston Bank has seventy damaged the group.
The group has gone and he was over out. The
sign sign has gone. Coach Trumps have to go away.
(15:34):
I would guess by now fifteen.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Records moretical that is eleven ten KFABS, and I apologize
if I'm getting the pronunciation wrong. Joe Cassiopo, I believe,
was on that report live here on news radio eleven
ten KFAB in the wake of that tornado doing the
damage it did at eighty fourth and L which is
(15:56):
incredibly personal to me. There was a young couple that
just started dating named Larry and Joyce, and Larry was
at one Ralston Bank branch trying to get over to
the one at eighty fourth and L where his girlfriend
Joyce was on his motorcycle dodging debris and seeing the
(16:19):
roof torn off the place. Feared the worst as he
went in there. Everyone inside the bank was okay, including Joyce.
They got married that next winter, and.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
The story would have been way cooler. Though they got
married the next day.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Yeah, several several months later, a photo album that had
been full of the images of cars toppled over and
the bank roof gone at the Ralston Bank and the
devastation there. Several months after that, the photo album was
then pictured had adorable baby pictures of a young man
named Scott Voorhees, very cute, and the and the devastation
(16:55):
and carnage that was soon cool. Not so cute, no,
but that was that was my childhood, looking through those
photo albums and seeing within just a couple pages of
each other tornado damage and then here's Scott in a bassinet.
And as such, you know, hearing my parents talk about
(17:17):
that story, especially every year, and of course seeing those
images would be in my head anytime at Bloomfield Elementary School,
It's like, okay, it's time to do the annual tornado
drill where you all go in the coat room and
duck your head. And I'm thinking, I saw the devastation
of that seventy five tornado in pictures. I don't know
how we survived this hanging out here under Brian's jacket
(17:42):
in the coat room. So my entire childhood was full
of every spring thinking here we go, this is going
to be a big tornado.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
I think that that's pretty accurate for a lot of
people that were young at that time. I remember in
seventy six there was another tornado and we were just
little kids, and we were just absolutely terrified, and we're
living in an apartment at that time and had to
go into the batht I've been It turned out okay.
My mother and my sister were at Bergen, so they
got a front row seat during seventy five.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Yeah. I remember being a little kid in my backyard
playing the sirens go off, the wind whips up, and
we were playing in a sandbox, and so a bunch
of sand got in my eyes and so I temporarily
couldn't really see and I was just sure that on
the other side of those eyelids was a monster of
a tornado.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
That's so sad.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Yeah, And I'm sure that I treated it with my
little sister there and my friends. I'm sure I was
all right, nobody panic, It's all going to be fine.
We're just going to go in the house. I'm sure
that's how I I'm sure, Actually my memory of that
might have evolved a little bit of panic. I remember
it as though it were yesterday. And anytime you hear
(18:57):
the sirens go off, I'm right back there in those
oh yeah, those velcrow shoes.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
And you've got a whole new class of on the class,
a whole new group of people from last year that
are right there in that that same just terrorizing. Yes,
those sounds probably just terrorizing them, yes.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Yeap, for those for those kids especially, that's you know,
that's that's why we start off currently, start off each
hour of the program with a little bit of if
this was your childhood, and it's a bit from a
song or a TV commercial or cartoon or movie or
whatever from usually usually that period of late seventies, early eighties.
(19:36):
We go mid eighties, sometimes early nineties on that because
that's the stuff that stamps itself on your brain sticks
there forever. You know, no one's saying like if this
was your mid to late thirties, like I don't remember
it was. It was a blur and it was it
didn't seem that important at the time. So so that's
(20:00):
that's why we do that. Fifty years ago today, the
DANEA four tornado ripped through for what is for many
of us, our hometown Fox News update in just a moment.
What do we panic about today? We might have some
(20:21):
local groups losing some federal funding. What's this about? Why
would this happen? I'll tell you next. Scott Byes talked
at the start of the program about how fifty years
ago today, May sixth, nineteen seventy five was at the
time the costliest tornado in American history, and it tore
(20:42):
Omaha in half diagonally from the old Applewood now Johnny
Goodman Golf Course kind of diagonally and then kind of
cutting up north on seventy second towards Benson Golf Course
and in its path a bank, a beloved restaurant, Hut
Nebraska Furniture, Mark Bergen, Mercy Hospital, Wolf Brothers, and many
(21:05):
other businesses and homes. Three people died this day fifty
years ago, which is amazing considering how monstrous that tornado was.
Got some emails here in the Zonker's Custom Woods inbox
Scott atkfab dot com. John started us off saying, I
(21:26):
played at Applewood that morning, and you could tell it
had the makings of a stormy day. Yes, it was
mostly clear, but the humidity was very high, and forecasters
predicted a chance for severe weather later in the day.
How right they were, by the way, I on thirteen,
I hit a five iron to within seven feet of
the cup and three putted for bogie and it bothers
(21:48):
me to this day. That's from John, I added the
last part. He didn't include those details. But if he's
a guy and a golfer worth his salt, that wouldn't
be included in the email. Yeah, that's why they'd canceled
after school activities that day. They hustled kids home after school, saying,
all right, we got about an hour and a half
(22:09):
until they say some weather's coming in. I started off
with the story here. K MTV came TV three has
this story about a kid named Mike, high school kid
going why are they canceling baseball practice? It's fine. Hour
and a half later, he's in his in a bathroom
in his house because his home near Pitple Park didn't
have a basement, and his dad was yelling at the
(22:32):
family over the siren sound of that thunderous tornado. It's okay,
We're gonna be okay. By the way, I believe the
neighbors in that Westgate area, it was Westgate Elementary School
in that area are gathering at six point thirty this
after this evening, they newly renovated the playground there at
(22:55):
Pitple Park. Not since what happened fifty years ago. We
finally got around to it. We put some swings up.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Now they.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
They got a newly renovated playground and they're launching that
and having a gathering there in that Westgate neighborhood near
seventy seventh in Center at six point thirty this evening,
this email from different John said Scott I was fourteen
years old waiting to go to a soccer game starting
(23:29):
or staring west out of the locker room doors at
Ralston High School. I saw and Ralston High School in
seventy five was where Ralston High School is now, having
recently moved from where the Ralston Middle School was, I
think largely spared. I'm sure there was some damage to
the middle school right across the football field from the
old Ralston Bank and Grandmother's there at eighty fourth and
(23:50):
l Anyway. John says, I'm fourteen years old waiting to
go to a soccer game. Staring west out of the
locker room doors at Ralston High School, I saw one
tornado touchdown, then two others surrounding it. With the initial
tornado touchdown, I thought, geez, why are those birds flying around?
Then later realized it was debris from roofs. We all
(24:14):
ran into the gymnasium as we were making our way
to other parts of the building. As the tornado came by,
you could hear the wind blowing over the roof. We
were very lucky it didn't sustain a direct hit and
caused that roof to collapse. Lots of screaming as it was.
It just went to the north of Ralston High School
to the apartments and then Grandmothers and the rest of
(24:35):
the way through the city. The tornado hit between my
house and the school, so driving home was frightening because
I didn't know if my house was still there. Remember,
in nineteen seventy five, cell phone coverage was spotty. Just
seeing if Lucy's paying attention.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Oh you know, I'm always listening to you.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
What did I just say?
Speaker 4 (24:55):
You said that cell phone was spotty in seventy five,
house was there?
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Yeah, it was very, very spotty.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
Don't test me.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
That's because there were no cell phones in nineteen seventy five.
And it's a hymn. It's John. Come on, fine, this
is a test one ear all right, that's fine. The
email sums up. He said I didn't know if my
house was still there, which was a real thing because
a lot of people were hunkered down at work and
then they were trying to get home, wondering if they
(25:27):
were going to have a home to go home to.
So we had to detour into Ralston, then back towards
ninety third and Q. I saw live wires laying in
water that was obviously still hot, as well as the
extensive damage to homes and businesses. It was a crazy time.
In the aftermath, they called out the National Guard. There
were helicopters flying over for days. Even though we had
(25:50):
those three fatalities, our city was very lucky. Amen to that. John,
thank you very much for the email, and says the
Downtowner Motel at seventy second and Dodge is wiped out.
Underneath that hotel was a daycare center where I took
my daughter Mary when I took classes at UNO. Thank heaven,
(26:10):
she was not there that day, but as I drove
by there shortly after the tornado, my hands shook and
I felt sick when I saw the devastation. Amazingly, all
the children were spared. That is from Ann sent to
Scott at kfab dot com. A few more emails here,
(26:31):
Bill says, my physics teacher told me that cars were
parked at Nebraska Furniture Mart and the tornadoes pulled the
windshields from the cars and planted the glass into adjacent buildings. Yeah,
along those lines, Tom says, I was farming near Mapleton, Iowa,
(26:53):
during the Omaha tornado. That's about ninety miles north. A
couple days later, I saw paper land in the field.
It was canceled checks from Omaha. Various businesses. The bank.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Right out of Ralston, Straight out of Ralston.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Which is also the story of my life, like straight
out of Compton, except a little different. Not much little different,
And let's see one more. Rob says nineteen eighty we
lived in Lincoln, and my first grade teacher said that
Lincoln sits in a valley, so we didn't have to
worry about a tornado. It would go right over the top. Later,
(27:37):
after we moved to Omaha and I became more aware
with age, I realized that the Westgate neighborhood we talked
about also sat in a valley, and it got hammered.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
It wasn't a big enough valley to hold an entire city.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
A teacher, is this the science teaching? A first grade
teacher said, Lincoln sits in a valley, so the tornado
would go right over the top of Lincoln.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Now, you cannot give teachers a hard time. Back in
the seventies, we still had great curriculum and they had
great students that would listen to teachers.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
And so, oh, I know, it's crazy. Nineteen seventy five,
Pluto was still considered a planet. We only had five
oceans rather than the I think thirteen or fourteen we
have now.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
And is it that many?
Speaker 1 (28:23):
No?
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (28:23):
And also it's so dumb. There were only two genders
back then. Wait, I know we only had two genders.
We have evolved. We have evolved so much then, which
gets us into this next topic of conversation. And even
though I've still got emails piling up, how many ninety
(28:44):
three unread emails in the last five minutes, So I
imagine we'll spot the rest of the show with some
of these emails about the tornado seventy five fifty years
ago today. That's why we're talking about it. But up next,
we got some local people complaining that apparently Trump and
Elon have cut off the taxpayer dole out. And I'll
(29:05):
tell you who's saying what next. Scott voices News Radio
eleven ten kfab National Endowment of the Arts is pulling
back the reins on some of the whether it's grants
or taxpayer dollars or whatever. They're a little tighter with
who gets what now. And it doesn't specifically say here
(29:27):
that this is Trump and Elon Musk, but some of
the people involved here who are not getting some of
this money, they say this has to do with Trump
and Elon Musk. The story from k ETV News Watch seven.
Multiple Omaha theater and arts organizations learned over the weekend
that the federal grants that they'd previously been awarded are
(29:51):
set to be terminated at the end of this month.
So what does this look like. Well, for the Omaha
Conservatory of Music, we got a twenty five thousand dollars
grant for its String Sprouts program for the upcoming twenty
twenty five and twenty twenty six school year. But they
learn they'll no longer receive that grant, and the director says, well,
(30:12):
we're gonna have to make some tough decisions, But then
she said the program will continue. We received a one
million dollar philanthropic support for the program. So it sounds
like you're gonna be okay without taxpayer funds. Sounds like
you've got donors who are seeing the value in a
(30:33):
program like this and are willing to fund it. Maybe
maybe that's how it could go. Maybe that's how it
should go. By the way, string programs and so forth,
music programs are available in the schools too. It's not
like they're just slapping viola's out of kids' hands. Hi,
are you an underprivileged youth who wants to play the flute? Yes?
(30:56):
Slap nope? Elon says no. Oh, now here's another group
that lost some of their funding. I don't know how
much money they were set to get. I've never heard
of this group, which doesn't mean that they aren't great
at what they do. It's called the Great Plains Theater Commons.
(31:18):
They're supporting their upcoming twentieth Annuel of twentieth Annuel New
Play Festival later this month, and they said, we're going
to keep doing it even though we got our money
cut off. What is the Great Planes Theater Commons. Well,
I went to their website and the first thing I
see is Black Lives Matter in Omaha. We have witnessed
(31:44):
the twenty twenty killing of James Skurlock and how the
white man who shot him walked free. That told me
everything I needed to know about the Great Planes Theater Commons,
which says that we shore new stories with the world,
and a statement the director says, or the arts director
(32:06):
for this group says, the actions against refugees, immigrants, the poor, students, journalists, artists, scientists,
federal workers, nonprofits, libraries, universities, the LGBTQIA community, the press, museums,
and the arts, among others, are attacks against everyone in
our country. No matter what the Trump administration does to us.
(32:28):
We will continue to support storytellers and share stories because
that is the work that we love and is the
best way we can be of service. It's interesting that
it points out on their website that they are striving
for cultural equity, and it says, as a currently sixty
percent white staff, we vow to increase our diversity until
(32:51):
a standard of equity is achieved. And it says currently
sixty percent white staff with three full time and two
part time members. Okay, get rid of a white guy.
And I didn't have to click on the picture to know,
but I did verify that the artistic director making all
these statements and saying we vow to be culturally equitable
(33:14):
and we hate the Trump administration and black lives matter.
I knew it before I clicked in his picture. Guilty,
white guy, Super guilty, white guy?
Speaker 4 (33:24):
How does that happen?
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Which is fine, but it's funny that he says, we
vow to achieve cultural equity. All right, step down? It
seems like it's the best thing you can do for
black people, is it? To step down? After all, you
said that the white man who shot and killed this
young man walked free, which is factually inaccurate. Otherwise known
(33:50):
as a blatant lie. And you know it, this group
lost their funding. Ah Now, if they want to do
the work and put on their plays and so forth,
and people pay to see them, I hope that they're
able to stand on their feet. I do support local artists,
even if I don't necessarily agree with their political point
(34:11):
of view. But I don't agree with this group's political
point of view, and either do they. You know, guilty,
White step down if you don't think that you're doing
the right thing. So that group is one of those
that lost some money. Talked about the nineteen seventy five
tornado fifty years ago on this date as basically dropping
(34:32):
down at Johnny Applewood golf Course former Applewood currently Johnny Goodman. I,
as a Ralston kid, call it Johnny Applewood drop down
at Applewood and lift it at Benson golf Course. And
I mentioned that just as a point of reference a
few times. But there's one other golf course in the
(34:53):
news today as of yesterday, it looks like Dodge Riverside
lives they had talked about. In case you're not familiar
with Dodge Riverside golf course, it's right there by Harris casino,
Like if you go to a concert at stir Concert
Cove Dodge. Riverside golf Course is right across the street
(35:14):
from Harris's Casino, and so they wanted to fill in
that whole eighteen whole golf course and do a neighborhood there,
but the city council rejected the plan. Three two, it
remains a golf course. Yay, Why are you yaying?
Speaker 4 (35:33):
Oh, I read this story and I'm just I was
really upset about it because that is an awful lot
of beautiful green space right along the river. Why the
world would you build homes there?
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Really?
Speaker 3 (35:47):
That?
Speaker 1 (35:47):
But I don't think Riverside has a problem with flooding.
If you're you're just saying green space.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
Green space. Ye, flooding is definitely an it.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
But there's plenty of space. If you want to walk
up and down the river, you just cross to Bob
Carry pedestrian bridge, walk all up and down the river.
There's plenty of place to do it. You can't just
go walking across the golf course unless you're a paying golf.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
I understand that, but why muck up the scenery with
a bunch of more buildings.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
They're homes though, people need a place.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
To live, live some place where you wouldn't have to
worry about flooding.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
I don't think that they're worried about flooding right there.
It flooded last year Riverside. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
Well it dark did?
Speaker 1 (36:31):
I don't know. Here's what I thought about. First of all,
what about the people that bought the annual pass that
allows them allows them to play Shoreline and Dodge Riverside.
You get two golf courses with the prize of one.
Do they give half the money back if they suddenly
shut one down? How's that work? The other thing I
thought was, are the people if they moved into a
neighborhood where that golf courses, are they going to be saying, look,
(36:53):
we don't want stir concert Code to have concerts anymore.
It's too loud. We're trying to sleep over here across
the street, and maybe you shouldn't have built a house
across from a great concert venue. But it's all done.
They rejected it. Scott Voyes Mornings nine to eleven, Our
News Radio eleven ten KFAB
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.