After ’75 Twister, Nebraska Furniture Mart Prepared For Worst

The tornado that ripped through Joplin, Mo., on Sunday evoked bitter memories in Omaha, where an F4 twister destroyed apartments, an elementary school and a Nebraska Furniture Mart building in 1975.
“It looked like somebody came through in a bomber and just bombed the hell out of the store,” the retailer’s executive VP Bob Batt told a local TV news station yesterday.
According to the report by KETV, about a hundred customers and staffers survived the devastation by hiding in a company fallout shelter that dated back to the Cold War.
The furniture, appliance and CE dealer since rebuilt the store with a dozen tornado safe rooms, and also implemented safety training for floods and fires.
“You don’t want to figure out what you’re going to do after it hits,” Batt said.