Storms kill 1, injure another and displace hundreds of inmates in Nebraska

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Strong storms before dawn Saturday in eastern Nebraska killed one person and seriously injured another in a state park and displaced hundreds of inmates after two prison housing units were damaged, officials said, even as other Midwest states also braced for bad weather.

The Waterloo Volunteer Fire Department was called to Two Rivers state park just before 7 a.m. Saturday, where first responders found a vehicle crushed by a large cottonwood tree. The tree had toppled as the storm brought gusts higher than 80 mph (129 kph) to the area, according to the National Weather Service. A woman in the vehicle was declared dead at the scene, while a man was trapped inside, the fire department said in a news release.

It took firefighters about 90 minutes to free the man because of the size and weight of the tree, the department said. Once free, the man was taken to an Omaha hospital with life-threatening injuries, Waterloo Fire Chief Travis Harlow said.

The state park — a popular camping spot — is about 5 miles (8 kilometers) west of Omaha's western border.

High winds caused widespread damage across eastern Nebraska, toppling trees, damaging roofs and pulling down electrical lines. About 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Omaha in Blair, the roof of a warehouse was torn open by high winds. Thousands of people were left without power in the immediate aftermath.

In the state capital of Lincoln, the storms damaged two housing units at the Nebraska State Penitentiary, displacing 387 prisoners, the state Department of Correctional Services said in a statement.

“There are no reported injuries, and all staff and incarcerated individuals are safe and accounted for,” the agency said.

Strong storms also moved through parts of eastern Wisconsin on Saturday, bringing gusts of 60 mph (97 kph) to the state's Door Peninsula, the National Weather Service said.

The weather service said more strong storms were possible across the nation's midsection Saturday night into Sunday, stretching from western Colorado into Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, northern Missouri and into Illinois and Wisconsin.

A rainbow is seen as lightning strikes during an early morning storm brought high winds to the area early in Omaha, Neb. on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. (Chris Machian/Omaha World-Herald via AP)

A hole is seen in the roof of the Dollar General distribution warehouse located at 1200 S 10th Streeet in Blair, Neb. on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025, after an early morning storm caused widespread wind damage in the area. (Chris Machian/Omaha World-Herald via AP)

People cleen up tree debris near Lincoln and 14th Streets in Fort Calhoun, Neb. on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025, after an early morning storm caused widespread wind damage in the area. (Chris Machian/Omaha World-Herald via AP)

A hole is seen in the roof of the Dollar General distribution warehouse located at 1200 S 10th Streeet in Blair, Neb. on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025, after an early morning storm caused widespread wind damage in the area. (Chris Machian/Omaha World-Herald via AP)

President Donald Trump’s administration announced on Tuesday that it’s freezing child care funds to Minnesota and demanding an audit of some day care centers after a series of fraud schemes involving government programs in recent years.

Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill said on the social platform X that the move is in response to “blatant fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz pushed back on X, saying fraudsters are a serious issue that the state has spent years cracking down on but that this move is part of “Trump’s long game.”

“He’s politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans,” Walz said.

O'Neill referenced a right-wing influencer who posted a video Friday claiming he found that day care centers operated by Somali residents in Minneapolis had committed up to $100 million in fraud. O’Neill said he has demanded Walz submit an audit of these centers that includes attendance records, licenses, complaints, investigations and inspections.

“We have turned off the money spigot and we are finding the fraud,” O’Neill said.

The announcement comes one day after U.S. Homeland Security officials were in Minneapolis conducting a fraud investigation by going to unidentified businesses and questioning workers.

There have been years of investigations that included a $300 million pandemic food fraud scheme revolving around the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, for which 57 defendants in Minnesota have been convicted. Prosecutors said the organization was at the center of the country’s largest COVID-19-related fraud scam, when defendants exploited a state-run, federally funded program meant to provide food for children.

A federal prosecutor alleged earlier this month that half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds that supported 14 programs in Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen. Most of the defendants in the child nutrition, housing services and autism program schemes are Somali Americans, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota.

O’Neill, who is serving as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also said in the social media post Tuesday that payments across the U.S. through the Administration for Children and Families, an agency within the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, will now require “justification and a receipt or photo evidence” before money is sent. They have also launched a fraud-reporting hotline and email address.

The Administration for Children and Families provides $185 million in child care funds annually to Minnesota, according to Assistant Secretary Alex Adams.

“That money should be helping 19,000 American children, including toddlers and infants," he said in a video posted on X. "Any dollar stolen by fraudsters is stolen from those children.”

Adams said he spoke Monday with the director of Minnesota's child care services office and she wasn't able to say "with confidence whether those allegations of fraud are isolated or whether there’s fraud stretching statewide.”

Trump has criticized Walz’s administration over the fraud cases, capitalizing on them to target the Somalia diaspora in the state, which has the largest Somali population in the U.S.

Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, has said an audit due by late January should give a better picture of the extent of the fraud. He said his administration is taking aggressive action to prevent additional fraud. He has long defended how his administration responded.

Minnesota’s most prominent Somali American, Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, has urged people not to blame an entire community for the actions of a relative few.

FILE - Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing, June 12, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

FILE - State Sen. Michelle Benson reacts at a news conference on Wednesday, April 10, 2019 at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul to a report by the state's legislative auditor on combatting fraud in Minnesota's Child Care Assistance Program. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski,File)