At least seven tornadoes touched down in Michigan as part of a severe storm driven by high winds that killed five people as it toppled trees, tore roofs from buildings, and left hundreds of thousands of customers without power, officials said.
The National Weather Service on Friday said an EF-2 tornado with maximum winds of 125 mph ripped through Lansing, the state capital, killing one person Thursday night and injuring three others.
Lansing Police Department spokesman Jordan Gulkis said an 84-year-old woman died after a tree fell on a home. Firefighters removed the woman from the home, but she was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The weather service also confirmed that an EF-1 tornado with 90 mph winds crossed from Ingham County into the western edge of adjacent Livingston County on Thursday night.
An aerial view of a house in Kent County, Michigan on August 25, 2023, after several tornadoes touched down in the area.AP
Four more EF-1 tornadoes were reported in Belleville and Gibraltar in Wayne County, in South Rockwood, and near Newport in Monroe County.
A weaker EF-0 tornado with peak winds of 80 mph was on land less than two miles away in Wayne County’s Canton Township, west of Detroit, the weather service said. The tornado caused trees to fall into homes, meteorologist Sara Schultz said.
The weather service office in Grand Rapids, in western Michigan, said officials will be in the field Friday conducting damage surveys of a suspected tornado in Kent County.
Downed power lines are seen hanging from debris on the ground following a tornado that hit Michigan.AP
The storm featured a display of lightning that erupted across the night sky and dumped several inches of rain on communities across the downstate.
In western Michigan, the Kent County sheriff’s office said a 21-year-old woman and two girls, ages 1 and 3, died Thursday night after two vehicles collided head-on in the rain.
“There are two vehicles heading towards each other. One seaplane was on the water and it was occupied by four people,” Sgt. Eric Brunner told WZZM-TV.
The interior of a mobile home damaged by a fallen tree at the Pavilion Mobile Home Park along Alpine Avenue NW is seen in Kent County, Michigan on August 25, 2023. AP
The sheriff’s office said a 22-year-old Gowen man who was driving the car carrying the woman and two girls was seriously injured in the crash, which occurred when his car struck an SUV. The driver of the vehicle suffered minor injuries.
In Ingham County, where Lansing is located, the sheriff’s office said Friday that one person was confirmed dead and several people were seriously injured as more than 25 vehicles were badly damaged along Interstate 96.
It was unclear early Friday afternoon if the storm or a crash was responsible for the wreckage on the highway.
A truck is seen crushed under the branches of a large tree at the Pavilion Mobile Home Park after at least four tornadoes touched down in the area.AP
In the northern Detroit suburb of Southfield, Muqitu Berry said he was in his farmhouse about 9:30 Thursday night when a large portion of a neighbor’s tree trunk fell, sounding “like a train going by.”
The tree ended up in Berry’s front driveway and yard and snapped a power line, knocking it onto the driveway and at least one vehicle, leaving Berry and his neighbors without power.
“I can’t get out of my driveway. I can’t go anywhere,” Berry said Friday morning. “We have no power, and it’s very frustrating.”
Comstock Park football players help remove debris in a subdivision off Pine Island Road in Kent County, Michigan on August 25, 2023. AP
Wayne County Executive Warren Evans declared a state of emergency Friday in Michigan’s largest county, including Detroit, due to power outages, flooding, downed trees and power lines and storm debris.
The district also warned residents to avoid any contact with several rivers after flooding caused municipalities to partially or completely dump untreated wastewater into various waterways.
In Macomb County, northeast of Detroit, several thousand basements in Eastpointe and St. Clair Shores is spared from flooding when stormwater and wastewater are channeled into Lake St. Clair through the emergency bypass system, Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller said. The bypass has only been used three times since 2017 but twice this week.
Multiple people were killed when the storm’s strong winds and several tornadoes tore off roofs and destroyed homes in Michigan.AP
“Apparently, these storms have become our new normal,” Miller said. “This is like a tropical storm, and both governments and residents need to make appropriate preparations whenever possible.”
Canton Township, a community of about 100,000 people, was hit by flooding earlier this week in its downtown business district.
“Some of our parks were destroyed,” said township supervisor Anne Marie Graham-Hudak, adding that the township received calls from 200 residents about flooding in their basements.
Ashley Lovejoy surveys the damage after a fallen tree in the bedroom of her home in Webberville, Michigan, on August 25, 2023 after violent storms and tornadoes hit Ingham County the night before. Reuters
More than 390,000 customers in Michigan and more than 120,000 in Ohio were without power as of about 7:15 p.m. Friday, according to the website Poweroutage.us.
Thursday night’s storm followed a round of heavy rain Wednesday that left areas of southeast Michigan with more than 5 inches of rain by Thursday morning, resulting in street flooding in the Detroit area, including the tunnel leading to Detroit Metropolitan Airport in the suburb of Romulus, officials said. .
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Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer on Friday declared a state of emergency for Wayne and Monroe counties, providing state resources to aid response and recovery efforts related to storm damage.
The storm pushed east across Lake Erie and into northeast Ohio, downing trees and leaving thousands of homes and businesses without power.
Tornadoes also touched down in parts of Cleveland late Thursday night. The path is about 150 yards wide and nearly a mile long.
No injuries were reported, but several buildings were badly damaged, including the 143-year-old New Life at Calvary Church which lost its roof. Church leaders asked members to stay away from the building.
“2 Timothy 4:17 says, God stood with me and gave me strength,” said Pastor Kellie Sullivan in a press release. “Our church has faced great loss and we praise God that no one was hurt. Please pray for our church as we begin to rebuild.”
Parts of the western United States have been flooded in recent weeks with rain from Tropical Storm Hilary, and much of the central US has been hit by deadly heat. In Hawaii and Washington, emergency crews battled devastating wildfires.
Scientists say that without an in-depth study they cannot directly link a single weather event to climate change, but climate change is responsible for more intense and more frequent extreme events such as storms, droughts, floods, and wildfires.
Climate change is largely caused by human activities that emit carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, according to a majority of peer-reviewed studies, science organizations and climate scientists.
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