Several tornadoes hit Michigan on Tuesday, with one twister pummeling a mobile home park in the southern part of the state, leaving a dozen people hurt and rescuers looking for more possible victims.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared an emergency for Kalamazoo, St. Joseph, Branch and Cass counties on Tuesday, citing significant damage inflicted on buildings and roads during severe storms.
At least 12 people were injured Tuesday evening at the Pavilion Estates Mobile Home Park in Portage, a city about 7 miles south of Kalamazoo, according to District 2 County Commissioner Jen Strebs.
Images also showed roof and structural damage to a FedEx facility in the city after the storms came through.
About 50 people were trapped in the building due to downed wires, Taylor Koopman, a spokesperson for Kalamazoo County administrator’s office, told MLive.com, adding work to clear the wires was ongoing as of 9:30 p.m. ET. However, city of Portage spokesperson Mary Beth Block told CNN in an email the building had been cleared by authorities and they had not heard of anyone being trapped in the building.
Two tornadoes hit the Portage area Tuesday, the National Weather Service said.
“We have significant damage, including damage to residential and commercial buildings, trees down across many roads in the city, and several reports of gas leaks,” Portage city officials said in a news release.
In the northwest portion of Branch County, south of Kalamazoo, at least seven homes were destroyed after what may have been a tornado hit the area, according to Emergency Management Director Tim Miner. He was unable to get out and assess damage to other parts of the county, he said.
Earlier, a tornado emergency for the village of Union City – also in northwestern Branch County – went into effect, when “a large and destructive tornado” was over the area, about 10 miles northwest of Coldwater and moving northeast at 45 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
According to the weather service’s Storm Prediction Center, at least six tornado reports were made in Michigan on Tuesday.
Whitmer said her heart went out to people in southwest Michigan. “Emergency teams are on the ground and working to assist Michiganders. I encourage everyone to continue monitoring severe weather alerts and follow the advice of emergency officials,” the governor said.
Several tornado warnings were also in effect in Ohio and 14 million people in the Midwest were under tornado watches late Tuesday.
The severe weather came a day after destructive storms roared through the Plains Monday, unloading at least one deadly tornado, giant hail and hurricane-force wind gusts. As some communities pick up the pieces, others had been preparing Tuesday for the threat of strong twisters in the Midwest.
• One killed, several injured Monday: At least one person is dead and several others are injured after a tornado tore through Oklahoma’s Osage and Washington counties Monday night, Osage County Sheriff Eddie Virden said in an on-air interview with CNN affiliate KOKI. Extensive damage occurred to dozens of homes between Barnsdall and Bartlesville. A search was ongoing in Barnsdall Tuesday for “one or two” people still unaccounted for, the town’s mayor Johnny Kelley said at a news conference.
• Tornado damage in at least two other states: A tornado caused “considerable damage” in Sullivan, Missouri, late Monday night according to storm reports. The extent of the damage is unclear, but images from the scene showed buildings filleted by the twister. Another tornado tore through parts of DeKalb County, Tennessee, and damaged at least a dozen homes in the Smithville area early Monday afternoon, officials told CNN.
• More than 200 storm reports: There were 244 storm reports Monday, including 17 tornado reports, according to the Storm Prediction Center. Hail the size of softballs slammed down in Kansas while baseball-sized hail pummeled Oklahoma. Wind gusts of 70 mph or greater were recorded in Nebraska and Kansas while an 82-mph wind gust occurred near Chester, Oklahoma.
• Rare high risk issued: Monday marked the first high – Level 5 of 5 – risk issued for the US by the Storm Prediction Center in more than a year. It was the first time in nearly five years Oklahoma was under such an extreme risk and the first time in nearly seven years in Kansas.
• More storms to come: Level 3 of 5 risks for severe thunderstorms are in place for parts of the US on Tuesday and Wednesday, with millions at risk of damaging wind gusts, hail and tornadoes.
Town hit by tornado for the second time in five weeks
Monday night’s triggered a tornado emergency for Barnsdall, Oklahoma, but residents here were all too familiar with the situation. It was the second damaging tornado in just over a month to hit the town, which was struck by an EF1 on April 1.
Under the cover of darkness Monday night, the large and destructive tornado barreled through the town.
Dorothy Aultz and her son Carl Kelley were at Dorothy’s Barnsdall home when the tornado hit. Dorothy is elderly and receiving hospice care, Carl told CNN, so he went to his mother’s home to protect her during the storm.
With a tornado on the way and no basement to shelter in, Carl had to improvise. He placed blankets on the bathroom floor, placed Dorothy on them and laid on top of her to protect her from debris.
The tornado tore through the home and destroyed most of it, but the bathroom held strong. Both mother and son made through the experience unscathed and were rescued from the rubble.
They were among the roughly two dozen people rescued from their damaged or destroyed homes Monday night, Kelley, the city’s mayor, said in a news conference Tuesday.
The full extent of the tornado’s destruction in Barnsdall didn’t become clear until the sun rose Tuesday. Much of the town has “significant damage;” a nursing home was damaged and evacuated; and several homes were “completely leveled,” Kelley said.
But it’s the loss of a man Kelley knew well in this close-knit community of 1,400 that will stick with him, he said.
“To me, the material things are material, you can replace them,” Kelley said. “The loss of life, it’s something that’s forever.”
Tornado threat shifts to Midwest, Tennessee Valley Tuesday
Strong storms shifted east on Tuesday and have ushered in a renewed threat of damaging wind gusts, large hail and tornadoes.
Severe thunderstorms got underway Tuesday afternoon in parts of Illinois but will expand across much of the Midwest and Tennessee Valley through the evening.
Nearly 13 million people here are at risk of a few strong tornadoes of at least EF2 strength. The Level 3 of 5 risk area includes large portions of Indiana, including Indianapolis; Kentucky, including Louisville; and Ohio, including Columbus.
Damaging winds and hail are possible outside of the highest risk area across a huge portion of the eastern US.
Millions are at risk of damaging storms once again on Wednesday, including areas hard-hit by Monday’s storms.
An expansive Level 3 of 5 risk of severe thunderstorms is in place from northeastern Texas and eastern Oklahoma to much of Kentucky and Tennessee. Damaging wind gusts, hail bigger than baseballs and tornadoes are all possible within Wednesday’s storms.
Some strong tornadoes are possible, mainly from Missouri through central Kentucky and northern Tennessee. St. Louis and Nashville are just two cities at risk of powerful tornadoes.
Torrential rainfall may also occur within any storm Wednesday and trigger flash flooding. A Level 2 of 4 risk of excessive rainfall is in place for a large portion of the Tennessee and Ohio valleys, according to the Weather Prediction Center. Rainfall rates could approach 1 to 2 inches per hour in the heaviest storms.
CNN’s Joe Sutton, Amy Simonson, Lucy Kafanov, Robert Shackelford and Andi Babineau contributed to this report.
