It was 95 years ago Sunday, another Easter observance, when hundreds were killed or injured in Omaha by a tornado that destroyed much of the city.

Around 6 p.m. on March 23, 1913, a storm system produced several tornadoes, including the one that hit Omaha, reducing neighborhoods to rubble.

"There was also a myth that Omaha was tornado-proof because of all of the hills," says retired UNO history professor Harl Dalstrom.

They could not have been more wrong. The massive F-4 tornado touched down outside Omaha and entered the city following a path along the Little Papillion Creek. Witnesses reported it at 40 miles long and nearly a half-mile wide.

What lay in its path was flattened, behind it lay death. One of the hardest hit areas was in north Omaha where Idlewild Hall stood at 24th and Grant. The Lutheran Church was left unrecognizable and a movie theater full of people at 24th and Lake was flattened. Bodies were everywhere.

On 40th and Farnam, a garage was left in ruins, a neighborhood around 48th and Grant vanished. The 1913 tornado also destroyed many of the historic mansions in Omaha and caused a great deal of damage to Joslyn Castle.

The twister continued on into Council Bluffs, but did not cause as much damage there.

It's estimated nearly 170 people died. The tornado obliterated 2,000 homes and caused $109 million in damage in today's dollars.

Dalstrom says the conditions that Easter Sunday were just right. "The weather of the day was what folks in that time would have called a ‘weather breeder,’ a hot, humid day in March which suggests we're going to have to batten down the hatches.”

In 1913, it's likely no one had a clue what was going to hit them. "There really was no way of mass warning people. If you had a home barometer you might have noticed that falling, but probably very few people did."