Omaha Contractors Drop Everything to Help During Tornado Relief

Some events are so significant they define a community. They become one of those “Where were you when?” kind of moments. That’s what unfolded when a tornado hit eastern Nebraska in the spring of 2024. Then the question is, “How did you respond?” For two local contractors, the answer was to take their Bobcat® equipment to the heart of the disaster.  

On April 26, a powerful tornado touched down southwest of Omaha, Nebraska. For 89 minutes, the tornado covered more than 30 miles with wind speeds reaching 165 miles per hour. It was a mile wide at its peak, according to the National Weather Service. The community of Elkhorn suffered the worst of the devastation. 

Do the Right Thing 

“It’s the kind of thing I’ve only seen on TV,” says Sage Tweton, a concrete foreman at Ideal Construction and resident of Elkhorn. “It brought tears to my eyes to go through the neighborhoods.” 

That evening, the owner of Ideal Construction cleared the calendar, bought some chainsaws and sent his crew to the disaster area with their Bobcat® T76 compact track loaders.  

Across town, Matt Mitera, owner of Mitera Landscaping, started seeing pictures of the damage on his phone. “As soon as I saw that, I knew I wanted to help,” he says. “We weren’t necessarily in a position to put off other jobs, but we knew it was the right thing to do.” The small business loaded up its E35 compact excavator and T66 compact track loader and went to work.  

Equipment for the Occasion 

For the next week, the contractors volunteered their time and equipment helping neighborhoods in Elkhorn. “Pulling up for the first time, it hits you hard,” Matt says. “Houses were just ripped down to the foundation.”  

Bobcat of Omaha donated an industrial grapple attachment to help Ideal Construction clear debris. To Sage, the compact track loaders were the stars of the cleanup effort.  

“Without our T76 loaders, a lot of that cleanup couldn’t have been done because there wasn’t room for larger machines,” he says. “The track loaders were the perfect option for us to get in and out of backyards easily.” 

Matt says the difference maker for his team was the clamp attachment for the compact excavator. It was just what they needed to grab debris and quickly load trailers.  

From the Heart 

The tornado destroyed 173 homes and damaged more than 900 others. In the week that followed, neighbors showed up daily with food, water and hugs to demonstrate their appreciation to the volunteers.  

“I’ve never seen so many people come together like that to help people they don’t even know,” Sage says. Matt adds, “Anybody with a trailer pulled up and we started loading. The turnout of volunteers kind of ran like a train through the neighborhood.” 

The generous spirit of the volunteers to donate their time became part of the defining moment of the 2024 tornado. Having Bobcat equipment perfectly suited for the job enabled the contractors to help the community when it needed it the most.