Haircuts, BBQ outside, Omaha traffic light woes, many without power after Wednesday's storm (2024)

Almost 60,000 Omaha Public Power District customers remained without power Friday evening, two days after massive storms carrying strong winds swept through the Omaha metro area.

“We’re making more progress in our push to restore power to everyone in our service territory. Again, we thank you for your patience and resilience,” the OPPD’s storm updates page said Friday late afternoon.

Not all of the outages are related to the storm, OPPD said. The number of outages have jumped up a little and then down again since the storm hit Wednesday evening.

A few more than 46,000 customers were without power are in Douglas County while just less than 11,000 customers were in Sarpy County Friday afternoon. About 1,000 customers were without power in Saunders County.

OPPD said it does not prioritize areas of towns when it comes to restoring power.

“Our crews work on repairs that will restore the greatest number of customers first and make their way down to more individual, lengthy repairs,” the utility said.

OPPD said power has been restored to the majority of the customers who initially lost power due to Wednesday’s storms. OPPD said on Thursday it could take up to eight days to restore power to all customers.

92 mph winds, but not a derecho

Although Wednesday’s storm produced among the strongest gusts that have been seen in the Omaha metro area, the National Weather Service has determined it was not a derecho — a rare, long-lasting windstorm that’s associated with a band of thunderstorms that move quickly.

With a top wind speed of 92 mph, the storm packed winds that were strong enough to be considered a derecho, which must have speeds of at least 58 mph.

But the two different accepted definitions for a derecho also suggest the storm must meet a certain length threshold, either 240 or 400 miles.

Wednesday’s storm stretched 230 miles from near Geneva to Des Moines, said Suzanne Fortin, meteorologist in charge of the NWS office in Valley.

“Thus, it did not make the path length threshold, whether 240 miles or 400 miles,” Fortin said.

Still, she said, the storm’s 90 mph gust at Omaha’s Eppley Airfield was the fourth highest ever recorded at that location.

The maximum gust recorded in the storm was a 92 mph reading just southwest of Denton in Lancaster County.

City opens another park for tree debris drop-off

The City of Omaha opened a sixth site for people to drop off tree debris at Al Veys Park, located north of the 60th and Harrison Streets intersection, Friday.

The Al Veys site joins five other parks for people to drop off tree debris. The other are: Hefflinger Park, 112th Street and West Maple Road; Towl Park, 93rd Street and West Center Road; Levi Carter Park, 4405 Carter Lake Shore Drive; the 156th and F Streets football field; and Greenbrier Park, 20601 Park Road in the Elkhorn area. On Thursday, there were long lines at some of those sites, leading to multiple hour waits to dump the tree parts the storm shook loose.

All parks will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day indefinitely for tree debris drop-off. The city will also begin collecting tree debris placed on curbs in residential areas perhaps as soon as Monday.

In a post on X, the Omaha Police Department said those using West Maple Road to drop off debris at Hefflinger Park should use the eastbound lanes and then turn south into the park. OPD said the westbound turning lane south into the park will be blocked to allow for traffic flow. People can also enter the park from the south by turning from Blondo Street and then heading north on Papillion Parkway.

In an email, city spokeswoman Carrie Murphy said the city’s garbage and recycling collection provider, FCC, missed approximately 6,000 trash collections on Thursday mainly due to downed trees and tree limbs blocking roads. Murphy said FCC crews plan to work on Saturday to catch up on collections.

Street closures

Omaha’s Public Works Department announced the closure of two streets in the city that are blocked because of the storm.

Western Avenue between North 89th and North 88th Streets was closed until further notice because of downed power poles, according to an OPPD press release.

Underwood Avenue between Fairacres Road and North 65th Street also is closed because of downed trees.

5% of Omaha stoplights not working

For a third straight day, some stoplights remained off at some of Omaha’s major intersections.

Around midtown Omaha on Friday, those intersections included 42nd and Leavenworth Streets, Saddle Creek Road and California Street and virtually all intersections around Benson including those on Northwest Radial Highway.

While the law stipulates any intersection where stoplights aren’t working are to function as four-way stops, motorists’ adherence to that law has been inconsistent. At one point early Friday afternoon, many eastbound cars along Radial Highway didn’t even slow down at the non-functioning stoplight controlling the highway’s intersection with 56th Street.

Austin Rowser, assistant public works director with the City of Omaha, said in an email Friday afternoon about 5% of the city’s stoplights are not fully functioning. Power to the stoplights is dependent on OPPD’s electricity restoration efforts to any given area.

Lt. Neal Bonacci, a spokesperson for the Omaha Police Department, said the department hadn’t considered sending traffic cops out to control intersections without working traffic lights.

“It would extend our resources greatly, especially with responding to 911 calls. Our traffic unit isn’t nearly big enough to be able to take on that task,” Bonacci said.

From 7:10 p.m. Wednesday, just after the storm rolled through Omaha, to 3:22 p.m. Friday, Douglas County 911 has received more than 210 calls for vehicle crashes. A county spokeswoman said the county was unable to specify how many crashes were due to stoplights not working.

Since 2020 per police policy, Omaha police officers only respond to a vehicle crash if there are any injuries and/or the cars aren’t able to be moved.

“The public is encouraged to exchange information and then file reports through NDOT (Nebraska Department of Transportation),” Bonacci said, adding crash reports can be filed with the NDOT online.

In the still dark Benson neighborhood: ‘It’s terrible.’

Omaha’s Benson neighborhood, a normally thriving business district, was a ghost town Friday afternoon as most businesses were closed since most had no electricity.

Hartland Bar-B-Que, at 54th Street and Northwest Radial Highway, was about the only business that continued to serve customers. But owner Yanet Soriano and her employed children have had to make compromises by only serving customers outdoors because there was no air conditioning in the building. Soriano made brisket and pork meat by using a wood-burning smoker.

“It’s been terrible,” Soriano said of the continued power outage. “I understand (OPPD crews) are working hard to get it going. But you lose a lot of money with no power, you know?”

Outside of their Benson area triplex near 60th Avenue and Lake Street, Eddie Alvoid and his family were grilling a chicken for lunch, lamenting the prolonged loss of electricity.

“It’s terrible,” he said. “No air conditioning, no electricity. I can’t even use my stove. Everything has gone out. That’s why I’m having a little cookout instead of letting the meat go bad.”

No power also makes it hard for Alvoid to see around his house as he can’t turn on lights.

“Good thing I know my way around,” he said. “It’s dangerous. I could fall and maybe hurt myself. That’s one thing that kind of disturbs me and I think and worry about.”

Even without power, some people are doing what they can to keep normal life going.

Artist Joe Addison was preparing the Benson neighborhood for Friday night’s monthly art walk hosted by the nonprofit BFF Omaha. He and his BFF Omaha colleagues are doing what they could to not compromise the event.

“We’re just kind of scrambling trying to figure out what to do — getting our generator fueled up and also powering up our power banks and stuff so we can make the most out of what we’re dealt,” he said. “Right now, we’re focusing on how to make the galleries lit, cool and still open to the public.”

Jeremy Torrance, a self-employed flooring specialist, grabbed a sandwich from Hartland Bar-B-Que for lunch Friday in support of one of his favorite places to eat and a desire to help out.

That was just one way the 20-year Benson resident has helped his neighborhood.

One of the lucky few who was able to purchase a generator from Lowe’s in the storm’s immediate aftermath, Torrance has used the generator to keep one room of his house cool for his 22-month-old daughter. He has also been able to operate his ice-maker. He has donated ice to help his diabetic neighbors keep their insulin cold.

“It’s a community effort,” Torrance said. “We all get together and we’ll get through this.”

Lack of power disrupts hair cuts

Consistency is the name of the game at the Ace of Fades barber shop.

“You’re always going to get a good haircut whether you’re in chair one or eight,” said Angel Flores, owner of the barber shop at 13th and Vinton Streets in South Omaha.

But without electricity, the barber shop hasn’t been able to stay open consistently since the storms cut off electricity Wednesday. Without power, Ace of Fades cannot provide air conditioning to its customers. The barbers can’t charge their clippers.

Even though Flores and another barber or two can cut hair outside in the mornings before the heat builds up, that limited timeframe does not do nearly enough to offset the loss of business due to appointments being canceled or rescheduled.

“We have definitely missed out on over 100 clients for sure,” Flores said Friday afternoon.

While certainly disappointed by his shop’s lack of electricity, Flores is not angry.

“Everybody was affected so you can’t even be mad about it,” he said. “We’re just taking it one day at a time.”

U-Haul offers free container storage

U-Haul is offering a free month of U-Box container storage to storm victims in Omaha and Council Bluffs at four participating locations:

World-Herald staff writer Henry Cordes, Steve Liewer and Molly Ashford contributed to this report.