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      I knew what this meant.  The neighbors had also noticed this scary thing and rushed toward the cellar; I stayed on the porch with my family, an unknown force seemed to hold me tight, I felt like I was not capable of moving a limb; as I looked at the tornado cloud, I felt like a small bird exposed to a hypnotic stare, not able to move myself. In my mind, pictures of my younger days rose up, I thought of my dear mother who raised me up to be a useful member of the human society, of my strict father who had always treated me fairly and with love. Finally my family came to mind, the most valuable gift which God gave me, and whose rescue, if somehow possible, I thought, must be before all other things. We should lay flat on the ground, and we would be just as secure as those that seeked refuge in the cellar, I thought; and gathered up all my ability and rushed with my family out onto the courtyard. Like a huge mountain that was suddenly pulled out from the grasp of mother Earth, came the disastrous cloud closer and closer; the noise it made was nerve racking. If a hundred Locomotives roared toward us, nothing made by living beings would ever leave such a lasting impression, like this disastrous, bellowing, ever crushing tornado cloud. I became sick. My boy screamed loudly with fear. It will hit us, he said; and this exclamation also echoed inside me. I was prepared for the worst. In the next moment I noticed a wild rattling sound, like the crackling of the bones of an antiquated sea monster. The tornado cloud had changed course like a lightning bolt – it was for us a lightning bolt out of a blessed sky – the cloud bent down and seemingly circled angrily over itself toward the East – and we were saved. Then fragments of shattered houses flew over us; in the next vicinity the demon out of the sky had started up its destruction again; moaning of the injured and dying rang in our ears; here and their stood columns of smoke, flames shot up from the rubble of houses, what the tornado had spared, was consumed with blood. Never in my life will this moment disappear from my memory.”

   Years might go by before Omaha themselves will recover from the terrible disaster, in the meantime the need would not be greater than the Help. A rebuilding fund would be built, and it was not out of the question, that within a short time it would consist of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The help committee asked the state legislators to approve a special lawless request, that Douglas County (government crisis of Omaha) authorize, to give out bonds to raise millions of dollars for the rebuilding fund, in case the citizens approved for them in a vote.