Nebraska tornadoes: Omaha neighborhood grant money diverted to relief organizations

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – This is the time of year when neighborhood grants are typically awarded by the City of Omaha.

After a tornado ravaged several neighborhoods in the city 10 days ago, Mayor Jean Stothert thought it would be best to earmark the money for tornado victims this year. Omaha city councilmembers unanimously approved her plan to divert the $100,000 at Tuesday’s regular meeting.

The 39 neighborhoods that were set to receive grants were told to reapply next year — that the need this year is to help the victims of the Elkhorn tornado. In the Ramblewood section, early estimates of damaged homes climbed past 160. There were countless stories of survival — now, families are trying to navigate the bureaucracy of rebuilding and getting on with their lives.

The grant will be split between the Elkhorn Public Schools Foundation and Relevant Church.

“As of today, we have a spreadsheet of 75 families that have students in the Elkhorn Public School district that no longer have a home that’s habitable,” said Stacey Falk with the foundation. “The need in the last week has been crazy because they’re just trying to find places to live.”

“We’re here to help families,” said Relevant Church Pastor Ronnie Rothe. “I don’t know of anything the city wants to do or anything like that, but if you want to help families, and we obviously know a lot of families that are affected, we’re in the center of this — we’ll get this to families because we’re already doing that.”

Relevant Church and its parking lot, right across the street from two of the hardest-hit parts of Elkhorn, organically served as a staging area for the recovery effort. Rothe says over 13,000 volunteers have organized here before heading into the neighborhood to help. His congregation alone, he said, has already raised $70,000 to help those who lost everything.

Both organizations told 6 News Tuesday afternoon they reassured the city that all the dollars would go to the victims — not a dime for administrative costs.

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