Terrifying videos show tornado sweeping across Nebraska town as eerie siren sounds...with second clip showing twister tearing across freeway and overturning machinery

Terrifying footage has been posted online of an enormous tornado touching down in Nebraska on Friday. 

The video, filmed from the upper stories of a building in the Omaha and Lincoln areas of the state, sees enormous storm clouds swirling while a siren hauntingly blares in the background, warning residents of the impending danger. 

The one-minute long clip appears to have been taken from the balcony of an apartment block. 

On the horizon, the full scale of the tornado can be appreciated with the giant clouds slowly turning as the storm barrels across the region. 

From the point where the video was shot, the winds appeared to be relatively light, but towards the center of the storm strength would have been ferocious destroying, virtually everything in their path. 

Terrifying footage was filmed of a massive tornado was touching down in Nebraska on Friday

Storm chasers also documented a tornado crossing a highway near Omaha, revealing the destructive power of the funnel-shaped storm

Ally Mercer, Gabe Sedlacek Kaleb Andersen and Austin Young watch a tornado from a seventh floor parking garage on Friday in Lincoln, Nebraska

The siren sounding in the background only adds to the chilling nature of the video and sheer good luck the tornado was not moving in the direction of the person filming the footage. 

At the start of the video the skies are dark and grey, but within a minute the danger appears to have passed by with the sky significantly brighter. 

In a second video posted online, a storm chaser was able to capture remarkable footage of a tornado, crossing highway near Omaha, Nebraska. 

The tornado could be seen touching down on the ground as the storm took on its destructive funnel shape. 

In mesmerizing footage, the storm could be seen churning up debris from both the road and adjacent farmland. 

The storm could be seen crossing a six lane highway as the tornado carved its path

Those capturing pictures of the swirling storms were able to get particularly close

A tornado touches down on Friday afternoon in Lincoln, Nebraska

A tornado moves through suburbs northwest of Omaha on Friday as seen from Bennington, Nebraska

The driver came across an overturned big rig that had been flipped by the powerful tornado which could still be seen churning away in the distance. 

Beyond the tornado, bright white clouds and blue skies could be seen giving the video an even stranger quality. 

Storm chasers regularly travel across the states where tornadoes are likely to form in the hope of filming captivating footage of these natural weather phenomena.

The storm was part of a tornado warning issued by the National Weather Service, which indicated a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado and golf ball size hail. 

The storm moved north at 50mph, causing significant damage to structures and trees in its path. 

Footage was also captured of residential neighborhoods being badly damaged by the tornado, leaving dozens of houses, flattened and ripped to shreds as the tornado carved its destructive path.

This massive tornado was spotted swirling near Lincoln, Nebraska

Footage of a tornado was captured in Lancaster, Nebraska. The storm was part of a tornado warning issued by the National Weather Service

A tornado is seen rolling through Elkhorn, Nebraska on Friday afternoon

The storm moved north at 50mph causing significant damage to structures and trees in its way

The Elkhorn tornado is seen passing close to an inland lake on Friday

Multiple tornadoes were reported in Nebraska but the most destructive storm moved from a largely rural area into suburbs northwest of Omaha, a city of 485,000 people.

Photos on social media showed heavily damaged homes and shredded trees. Video showed homes with roofs stripped of roof tiles, in a rural area near Omaha. Law enforcement were seen blocking off roads in the area.

Hundreds of houses sustained damage in Omaha, mostly in the Elkhorn area in the western part of the city, police Lt. Neal Bonacci said.

Police and firefighters are now going door-to-door helping people who are trapped.

'We are getting 911 calls of people in debris in their basement,' he said. 'We are just working as quick as we can to help everyone who needs it.'

He said the injuries are minor so far and he was not aware of any damaged businesses.

'There´s lots of trees down. There's roofs missing from houses. You definitely see the path of the tornado,' Bonacci said.

Blue skies could be seen behind the ferocious storm as it carved its way across Nebraksa

The storm also produced golf ball size hail as it blazed across the countryside

Heavy storm clouds appear as a tornado moves through suburbs northwest of Omaha

In one area of Elkhorn, dozens of newly built, large homes were damaged. At least six were destroyed, including one that was leveled, while others had the top half ripped off.

There were dozens of emergency vehicles in the area.

'We watched it touch down like 200 yards over there and then we took shelter,' said Pat Woods, who lives in Elkhorn. 'We could hear it coming through. When we came up our fence was gone and we looked to the northwest and the whole neighborhood's gone.'

His wife, Kim Woods added, 'The whole neighborhood just to the north of us is pretty flattened.'

Dhaval Naik, who said he works with the man whose house was demolished, said three people, including a child, were in the basement when the tornado hit. They got out safely.

The tornado warning was issued in the Omaha area on Friday afternoon just as children were due to be released from school.

Many schools had students shelter in place until the storm passed. Hours later, buses were still transporting students home.

Another tornado hit an area on the eastern edge of Omaha, passing directly through parts of Eppley Airfield, the city's airport. 

Officials closed the airport to aircraft operations to access damage but then reopened the facility, Omaha Airport Authority Chief Strategy Officer Steve McCoy said.

The passenger terminal wasn't hit by the tornado but people rushed to storm shelters until the twister passed, McCoy said.

Flight delays are expected Friday evening.

Severe weather damage to Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Nebraska leaving planes overturned

Debris is seen from a destroyed home northwest of Omaha, Nebraska, after a tornado tore through the area 

After passing through the airport, the tornado crossed the Missouri River and into Iowa, north of Council Bluffs.

Nebraska Emergency Management Agency spokesperson Katrina Sperl said damage is just now being reported. 

Taylor Wilson, a spokesperson for the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said they hadn't seen any injuries yet.

Before the tornado hit the Omaha area, three workers in an industrial plant were injured Friday afternoon when a tornado struck an industrial plant in Lancaster County, sheriff's officials said in an update on the damage.

The building just northeast of the state capital of Lincoln had collapsed with about 70 employees inside and several people trapped, sheriff's officials said. 

Everyone was evacuated, and three people had injuries that were considered not life-threatening, authorities said.

Sheriff's officials say they also had reports of a flipped-over train near Waverly, also in Lancaster County.

Dozens of houses, flattened and ripped to shreds as the tornado carved its destructive path

Damage from the tornado at Garner Industries is seen on Friday outside Waverly, Nebraska

Paul Retzlaff, left, talks with Davianne Vice after a tornado damaged a machine shed on Friday in Lincoln, Nebraska

Two people who were injured when the tornado passed through Lancaster County were being treated at the trauma center at Bryan Medical Center West Campus in Lincoln, the facility said in a news release. 

It said the patients were in triage and no details were released on their condition.

The Omaha Public Power District reported that nearly 10,000 customers were without power in the Omaha area.

Daniel Fienhold, manager of the Pink Poodle Steakhouse in Crescent, Iowa, said he was outside watching the weather with his daughter and restaurant employees. 

He said "it looked like a pretty big tornado was forming" northeast of town.

"It started raining, and then it started hailing, and then all the clouds started to kind of swirl and come together, and as soon as the wind started to pick up, that´s when I headed for the basement, but we never saw it," Fienhold said.

The Weather Service also issued tornado watches across parts of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas with forecasters warning that large hail and damaging wind gusts were possible.