Nebraska tornadoes: Volunteers bring supplies & free food to Elkhorn storm victims

ELKHORN, Neb. (WOWT) - As victims of the Elkhorn tornado start to process Friday’s catastrophe, volunteers are wasting no time giving back in any way they can.

Omaha food trucks Javi’s Tacos and The Corndog Company posted up in the parking lot of Elkhorn’s St. Patrick’s Catholic Church on Saturday to provide free meals to storm victims and volunteers helping with relief efforts.

“The community has been great to us, to both of our businesses. So, we want to give back,” said Javier Trujillo, owner of Javi’s Tacos.

“We don’t expect anything in return. We just want to give a little back to the community. We’ve received so much from them,” echoed Juan Lopez, owner of The Corndog Company.

The restaurant owners hoped to provide some simple comforts on a day when nothing feels normal for the Elkhorn and Bennington communities.

“Everybody is going through something hard right now and giving them a corndog, giving them some tacos, something that’s not been processed and refrigerated but something fresh, hopefully they feel that we are giving it out of our hearts and love for them,” told Trujillo.

Volunteers filled their cars with the warm meals to take into neighborhoods made unrecognizable by Friday’s twister.

Rachel Friesen was one of those volunteers. She took her three young daughters with her Saturday to the grocery store to buy supplies and donated them at St. Patrick’s. When they arrived, they answered the call to help further.

“As we pulled up, they were like, ‘are you able to go into the neighborhood and drop off all this stuff?’ I was like, ‘absolutely’,” explained Friesen.

Friesen then spent the day taking trunk-loads of food to people in need. “Honestly, I think that they are just very numb, there was no reaction. I know that they’re grateful, but you can tell that they’re in shock,” said Friesen.

She said a tornado missed hitting her Bennington home by less than a mile Friday afternoon. She and her neighbors hunkered down in her basement until the storm passed. “We just saw the debris flying and it was the biggest thing I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t believe it,” told Friesen.

St. Patrick parish member Randi Carlini and her family took on the same task of delivering food without hesitation.

“It’s hard to sit at home knowing that there’s people that need something as simple as water. We didn’t really know what all needed to be done, we just came,” said Carlini.

Both food trucks plan to remain in the parking lot through Sunday or until they run out of food.

Across the church parking lot, a steady stream of people arrived with vehicles brimming with water bottles and other supplies to donate.

“This reminds me of what always comes forth from devastating things like this,” said Father Tom Fangman with St. Patrick’s Catholic Church of Elkhorn.

Father Tom Fangman said he is overwhelmed but unsurprised by the generosity the community showed Saturday.

“It’s a testament about what life should be when people need one another, and we all need one another, love always triumphs,” told Father Fangman.

St. Patrick’s is offering help for those in need of housing, transportation, childcare, debris clean-up and more after Friday’s storms.

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