Nebraska tornadoes: Reality of rebuilding sinks in for those picking up the pieces

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Reality is starting to sink in for those who will need to rebuild after Friday’s tornado outbreak.

Jeff Smedlund, an independent insurance agent, said it’s hard to predict what lies ahead for the hundreds of homeowners who will need to repair or rebuild from the ground up.

Smedlund said, “This is an unprecedented loss that we just don’t know what the solution is going to be.”

Smedlund recalls the tornado of 1975.

“For us that were alive in 1975 the tornado, we recall it took almost a year for the homes to get rebuilt,” he said.

However, Smedlund says back then, we didn’t face the obstacles we do now.

“There is a shortage of materials and there is a shortage of labor and then when you throw in a large loss like this, it exacerbates the problem.”

Smedlund says the problem took off during the COVID pandemic.

“The shortage we’ve seen started back in COVID, and that has just progressed itself along so we’re finding a hard time getting materials in place, so that might have to come from other areas, might have to wait for it, and as far as the labor goes, we’re going to have to find the labor that can do the job.”

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Smedlund says many local contractors are already tied up. “The labor pool that we have in Omaha is strained already with a lot of the large commercial projects we have. You’re looking at Amazon and Google that take up a lot of resources, and then with things that are going at Crossroads and things like that may impact the ability to get your home rebuilt as quickly as you want to,” he said.

Or for what many are willing to pay, unlike large companies.

Smedlund said, “They’re building large warehouses, and they want to get things done quickly and they have the money to get the talent to work on it.”

Smedlund says homeowner’s insurance should cover temporary housing like apartments or hotels. However, he warns, finding a hotel may be difficult this weekend because of the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders’ meeting.

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