Destructive supercell storm rolled across Michigan, triggering tornadoes and damaging buildings
THREE RIVERS, MI – A spring-like storm It quickly turned violent on Friday afternoon, It spawned at least two tornado strikes that damaged buildings, destroyed part of a Menards store and sent at least several people to the hospital.
The powerful supercell tornado storm moved west to east across Michigan. The main threats were supposed to be large hail and damaging winds up to 60 mph, but that quickly changed when the first Tornado Warning was issued just before 4 p.m. Over the next 90 minutes, swirling storm clouds moved east toward Ann Arbor and Detroit’s suburbs.
Tornado landfalls and heavy building damage were reported in Three Rivers and Another tornado was reported in Union City.
A Menards building in Three Rivers was heavily damaged. Debris, overturned and damaged vehicles were scattered in the parking lot. Other nearby buildings were also damaged and there were reports that the local high school was hit.
While there were no life-threatening injuries in the incident, many people were taken to hospital for treatment for minor injuries.
Joseph County Sheriff’s officials asked people to stay away from the northern part of the county while emergency crews dealt with the incident.
In the Union City area of Calhoun County, the landfall and storm caused more than 2,200 power outages. “Crews are in the area and more are on the way,” Consumers Energy representatives said. “We will establish a mobile command in Union City to help coordinate our response.”
Storm systems are expected to continue moving across the state tonight and into early Saturday.
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