Tornado with 165 mph wind sucks brothers from Nebraska home: 'I was just screaming his name'

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Nebraska brothers recount surviving EF-3 tornado

Nebraska brothers Royce and Roger Slatten joined FOX Weather after an EF-3 tornado not only destroyed their home, leaving them buried in the rubble.

ELKHORN, Neb. – Nebraska brothers tell a terrifying tale of feeling a tornado pull their home apart, sucking them out and tossing them with debris.

 "Ok, I'm cool to leave for work," Roger Slatten thought to himself Saturday afternoon after Elkhorn, Nebraska's tornado sirens went silent. But they sounded again. A strong EF-3 tornado was bearing down on the Omaha suburb with 165 mph winds.

His friend called him in the car and said, "Get back home, It's going crazy." Roger called his brother Royce and told him to rush home. They planned to get the two dogs and all shelter in the basement.

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The EF-3 tornado flattened the Slatten home. You can see cinder blocks which used to frame a basement.

(Lindy Slatten / FOX Weather)

"As soon as I got home, it was pretty much game time," Roger Slatten told FOX Weather. "It all happened so fast. I was maybe back home for 45 seconds. From the time I pulled up in front of the house to the time that I was getting buried in the backyard, was probably about 90 seconds."

Royce thought the dangerous part was over too. He had recently returned from a long National Guard deployment in February and was welcomed home by brother Roger and his wife. The couple had only been living in the home for about seven months.

"I was really looking forward to get back to some normalcy," Royce Slatten said. 

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Looking through the debris for valuables at the Slatten home.

(Roger Slatten / FOX Weather)

But now, as the tornado approached, the brothers ran upstairs to get one of the dogs before heading to the basement.

"And, we kind of heard the house pull a vacuum, and then all the windows blew, and then we could feel the floor separating from the foundation," Roger said. "And we were kind of able to look at each other for just a second. And then it just took off." 

The force yanked Roger from the house and buried him alive in the yard. He said all the debris protected him from sharp glass and metal flying around. 

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The home was reduced to debris strewn across the neighborhood.

(Lindy Slatten / FOX Weather)

Royce said details are foggy, but remembered feeling relieved when debris finally stopped pelting him. He said he looked up, and the entire house was gone. Everything next to it was gone and replaced by piles of rubble.

"And, and then I thought, 'My brother, he was right behind. He's, he's gone,'" Royce said. "And I just started screaming his name and the way I was screaming, It'll never leave my head."

He got up to run to a passerby to get help searching. But one look at Roger and the good Samaritan made him sit down because his feet were bleeding.

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Royce and Roger Slatten recovering in the hospital.

(Lindy Slatten / FOX Weather)

"And as soon as I sat down, I couldn't get back up," he said.

He spent the next 20 anxious minutes terrified he had lost his brother.

"So when he came walking up the street, let alone to be alive, it was the biggest wave of relief I think I could ever, ever have," Royce said.

Neighbors heard Roger yelling from under a pile of debris that used to be his home and slowly uncovered him.

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Debris littered the yard.

(Lindy Slatten / FOX Weather)

"It's incredible to look at the damage, what has happened," Roger said.

At the hospital, doctors treated the slashes on Rogers' face, deep bruises and his back where a nail drove through his skin. Royce needed multiple stiches and had trouble walking. He's now on crutches, but both brothers, battered, were happy each other was alive.

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Both dogs survived too, with only minor injuries, and all are now staying with a family friend.

Amazingly, no people died in the massive tornado, but the NWS reported that a horse was killed. The path of devastation ran over 31 miles and at one point was almost a mile wide.