STORMS SPAWN TORNADOES IN MICHIGAN, OHIO
CANTON TOWNSHIP, Mich.
At least six tornadoes touched down in Michigan as part of severe storms powered by strong winds that killed five people, while downing trees, tearing roofs off buildings and leaving hundreds of thousands of customers without power, officials said.
The National Weather Service on Friday confirmed that an EF-1 tornado with winds of 90 mph crossed from Ingham County into the western edge of adjacent Livingston County on Thursday night.
Four other EF-1 tornadoes were reported in Belleville and Gibraltar in Wayne County, and in South Rockwood and near Newport in Monroe County.
A weaker EF-0 tornado with peak winds of 80 mph was on the ground for less than two miles in Wayne County’s Canton Township, west of Detroit, the weather service said. That tornado caused a tree to fall into a house, said meteorologist Sara Schultz.
The weather service office in Grand Rapids, in western Michigan, said officials were in the field Friday conducting damage surveys on a suspected tornado in Kent County.
The storms featured lightning displays erupting across the night sky and dumped multiple inches of rain on communities across the lower portion of the state.
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 crashed headon as it was raining.
In Lansing, the state capital, an 84-year-old woman died Thursday night after a tree fell on a home. And in Ingham County, where Lansing is located, the sheriff ’s office said Friday that one person was confirmed dead and several people severely injured as more than 25 vehicles were severely damaged along Interstate 96.
The storms pushed east across Lake Erie and into northeast Ohio, uprooting trees and leaving thousands of homes and businesses without power.
A tornado also tore through part of Cleveland late Thursday night. Its path was about 150 yards wide and nearly a mile long.
No injuries were reported, but several buildings were severely damaged, including the 143-year-old New Life at Calvary Church, which lost its roof.
More than 390,000 customers in Michigan and more than 120,000 in Ohio were without power as of Friday evening, according to the Poweroutage.us website.