Damage is being assessed in the aftermath of a tornado, possibly as strong as an EF2 with rotating winds up to 135 mph, that churned through Millard Sunday morning causing extensive damage, but no major injuries.

Exact numbers are not yet available, but hundreds of homes were damaged and a handful destroyed. Thousands still remain without power.

One of the first areas hit was 154th and Giles out by Wehrspan Lake, south of the Douglas/Sarpy County line around 2:20 a.m. The tornado continued moving to the northeast. Some of the worst damage was in the vicinity of 137th and Birchwood, just west of the Millard Airport. A funnel cloud was last reported in the area of 120th and Pacific.

"I was afraid the tree was falling and then all of a sudden the ceiling just fell in on us," said Michelle Tanga of Millard.

After the sirens stopped, the family tried to get out. "We decided we were going to leave because there was no tornado sirens so we packed the kids up in the van and then you can see now the garage is open, but we couldn't get the garage doors open."

"Physically we're okay, emotionally, we're exhausted," said Michelle. Exhausted as she tries to come to terms with what’s that's left of her family's home. "Unbelievable."

The tornado sucked the roof off the house, taking years of family memories with it. "We heard a really loud sound, sounded like wind and then the ceiling came crashing down on us.”

As the tornado struck, across this hallway were Michelle's three children. With things crashing down around them, she and her husband's first thought was to save the kids.

In all the panic, one of the things that concerned Michelle most was that she couldn't get into her children's rooms to save them. The tornado had such power it literally blew the doorknobs off of the doors.

Zak's door was one of three Michelle's husband Tom broke down. "Nothing short of a miracle,” said son Zak Borrell. “It's chaos in there. I don't know how we got out without getting hurt."

"After looking at it now, we're lucky, really lucky,” said Tom Tanga.

The family huddled in the basement trying to make sense of what was going on around them, a challenging task to explain to a 4-year-old shaking with fear. "Once we got downstairs, we told her we're safe. We didn't know if we were, but we told her we were safe."

Twelve hours later, the family packed what was left of their life into a minivan.

One block away, the damage was more extensive and extremely heartbreaking. Near 137th and Z Circle, several homes were reduced to little more than piles of wood sitting in yards.

"All we had time to do was run downstairs, here's three of us in the house and we all woke up at the same time and heard this horrific noise and things hitting the windows and as we were coming down the hallway heading toward the steps we heard a crash," says Deb Essink.

The crash was a tree hitting her home. Pieces of a two-by-four sat lodged into her neighbor's house, the same house where the roof was ripped away and all the furniture was tossed into the street.

There were at least six more houses on the block with similar damage. The tornado skipped other homes on the same block. Residents who did not sustain any damage were spending the day helping their neighbors left with no place to call home.

Essink says everyone should be thankful that, there's a miracle in all of this destruction. "It created a lot of damage, but you know, God kept us all safe and that's where it's at."

Another house damaged near 138th and Birchwood was about to be sold. For Mike Minarik and his wife, the storm took more than just their trees. "Signing papers June 30th, we've already been through some of the preliminary paperwork also."

Now the soon-to-be homeowners are left without a new house. "At a loss because we're living in a condo, somebody bought our condo, we have to be out of there by the 31st of July and we're just kind of planning on where we're gonna go next."

Across the street was more evidence of the storm's destruction. "We got woke up right before it happened, we heard the pressure change, the windows rattling, and then a crash, our kids came down, said did you hear that?” said Michael Nicksich.

“Pretty soon the whole neighborhood was out here, 15 minutes after and we're just glad our house didn't get hit as bad as other people’s." The storm may have damaged his home, but not his will to rebuild.

"Probably just clean up and remodel, find a backup space to live for a few months because it's probably four or five months worth of work because there's so much water damage on the inside of the house from the roof being gone,” said Nicksich.

"It sounded like an explosion, like a bomb went off," said Jerry Foral in the 137th and Y neighborhood. "Someone's roof went through our front window."

It startled residents, to say the least. "Slept right through everything until the wind broke the window,” said Bob Nordby. "Garage door is smashed in, privacy fence torn down, roofs got a hole in it, bunch of tree limbs in the yard."

It didn't take long for help to arrive. Firefighter Jeff Rockwell went through this before when a tornado hit his home in Kansas City in May of 2003. "It took out over half the house."

The experience made him more prepared for Sunday. "Just trying to express that I sympathize with, knowing the feeling of helplessness when you first walk out the door and you wonder where do you start at. Just tell them that it all works out and just work with their insurance companies and things work out in the end. Just glad everyone is okay. A lot of damage."

At 154th and Giles Road, two homes in the middle of a new subdivision show the scars of major damage. "I was just laying in bed and it started hailing pretty hard," said Brian Pieper. "Deck came through our house."

Brian's wife Jamie was hit by one of the boards. "It hit me in the head," she said. "Didn't realize it was supposed to storm." Jamie was checked at the hospital and then she and Brian began cleaning up.

Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman toured the area Sunday morning and said the damage was the most extensive he's seen in the past 10 days. He compared the storm and its aftermath with the May 29th tornadoes that struck Kearney and Aurora in south-central Nebraska.

The May 29th storms hit during the day, so people had plenty of warning, Heineman said. But in the Omaha area early Sunday morning, people were still sleeping and had little, if any warning.

"Thank goodness we did not lose any lives this morning," said Heineman.

"I've been to two homes, one where probably if the family had been there they would have lost a child, another came very, very close. The father had gotten his wife downstairs, he was getting his kids, got knocked down to the floor and simply covered his daughter for a period of time until this blew over."

Heineman said he was awaiting a formal request from local authorities before seeking more state or federal aid. On Sunday, he was accompanied by Federal Emergency Management Agency official who had been in the state since May 30th.

"It was inevitable with the rash of tornadoes in the Midwest we were going to get hit and we were hit today," said Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey as he toured the heavily damaged neighborhood in Millard. "The good news is no one was hurt or killed."

Neil Lewis said he and his wife were sleeping when the wind awakened them. He noticed that water had leaked onto a window sill, which "got my attention in a hurry."

He went outside to discover that most of their six-foot-tall wood fence was gone and that some shingles were missing. "We was lucky compared to some of them."

The Wal-Mart at 132nd and L streets was closed Sunday. It received structural and roof damage. Repairs were already being made and the store hopes to reopen sometime on Monday.

That Wal-Mart location is like many others that allow campers to park in its lot. That was the case of a Grand Island family attending a wedding. They returned to their camper just before the storm hit.

"We went to the wedding and reception, came back here and went to bed," said Joanne Eickhoff. "It picked up the whole motor home, took off our roof. The awning, took off the awning and antenna, broke the windshield. Just thank God we're here, you know."

Joanne's husband "Ike" inspected the motor home after it was set back on the ground. There was damage to the window and various parts, including the awning, were found yards away. The Eickhoffs and their son are all okay.

Near 44th and Pinkney, the storm tore the top off a tree and a part of it landed on Mike Mitchel's house. Another piece of it fell on his pickup. "It just came so quick and we heard the house kinda shake and then boom!"

Mitchel borrowed a chainsaw, took apart the tree and eventually freed the pickup. It has a smashed windshield and tailgate.

The storm damaged hundreds of trees in the metro. Many fell on power lines, knocking out electricity in many neighborhoods.

The Omaha Public Power District reports that during the height of the storm nearly 12,000 customers lost power. As of Sunday night, that number had been reduced to about 4,100 customers, most of them in Millard. Power may not be completely restored until Wednesday.