PAVILLIAN TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Three tornadoes were confirmed in Michigan early Wednesday as severe storms swept through the central United States, leaving a Tennessee man dead when a tree fell on the vehicle he was riding in. .
The storm that swept through Northeast Tennessee brought strong winds that downed power lines and trees. Claiborne County Sheriff Bob Brooks said a 22-year-old man in a car was struck by one of the trees.
National Weather Service meteorologist Nathan Yeruzal said one tornado each touched down in Michigan’s Kalamazoo, Cass and Branch counties, all in the southwestern part of the state.
The Portage area of Kalamazoo County was hit hard, with a FedEx facility destroyed and more than a dozen mobile homes destroyed.
Tornadoes were reported for the first time after dark in parts of Michigan, Indiana and Ohio on Tuesday, and parts of Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri were also under tornado watches, according to the National Weather Service. The storm came a day after a deadly tornado ripped through a small Oklahoma town.
Samantha Smith was holding a box as she walked out of her mother’s partially damaged home in Pavilion Township, about 137 miles west of Detroit, on Wednesday afternoon. The box contained her grandmother’s ashes. Being able to recover his most precious items gave Smith a rare relief from the storm’s devastation.
“Finding this box was the best thing that happened to me in the last 24 hours,” she said. “Our biggest concern is my grandma’s ashes.”
Her parents and brother were injured in the storm. Smith added that her brother suffered a broken pelvis and a broken back, but he and the other victims survived.
“I’ve probably thanked God a billion times since this happened yesterday,” she said. “My kids are healthy and great. We just have to make up for what we lost.”
In southern Indiana, the National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado with a preliminary rating of EF-0 and winds of 85 mph touched down in southern Indiana early Wednesday, damaging Seychelles, about 12 miles north of Louisville, Kentucky. Houses in a subdivision in northern Lesburg.
The Clark County Emergency Management Agency said the storm damaged 24 structures.
Candice Holmes, a resident of the Lewis and Clark subdivision north of Sellersburg, said she, her husband and son took shelter in the bathroom when they heard the sounds of an approaching storm, and “the wind suddenly blew. It started blowing.”
“My husband and son walked outside, opened the door, then closed the door and ran back to the bathroom. When the bathroom door came in, they closed the door,” Holmes told WDRB-TV. “The game was over as soon as it started, but it was definitely a scary moment. I’m just glad we’re still alive.”
Jeff Craven, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Pittsburgh office, said survey teams were scheduled to go out Wednesday to determine whether tornadoes struck some areas in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.
Craven said radar indicated tornadoes hit Hancock County, West Virginia, and Jefferson County, Ohio, but teams had to assess the damage to determine their ratings.
Hancock County Schools in West Virginia closed Wednesday because of “widespread overnight weather concerns” in the county. News outlets reported damage to buildings and power outages.
Forecaster Tabitha Clark said a team from the National Weather Service also traveled to Hot Springs, Arkansas, to survey damage and determine the strength of a tornado that struck early Wednesday morning.
The tornado damaged some homes, uprooted trees and downed power lines. There were no reports of injuries or fatalities from the tornado, according to the state Emergency Management Department.
In Portage, Michigan, about 50 people were temporarily trapped inside a damaged FedEx facility due to downed power lines. Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller said a dozen homes were destroyed and 16 people were injured at a mobile home park in neighboring Pavilion Township.
“We found homes on the road,” Fuller said Tuesday night. “We found shelter at a neighbor’s house. We found big trees on our property.”
More than 20,000 people were without power.
“We’re looking at entire neighborhoods of homes that are completely gone, they’ve been torn down,” Fuller said during the day at the Pavilion Estates mobile home park.
He said the house, where seven people lived, was “completely in peak condition”. “They were able to rescue themselves and get to safety and are returning today.”
Travis Wycoff ventured outside after seeing a tornado touch down in the Portage area on radar Tuesday night. About five minutes later, he saw the aftermath.
“There were a lot of people running through the streets trying to find people and their pets,” Wyckoff said. “It’s just chaos.”
Wyckoff said he helped an elderly couple get out of a partially collapsed home and rescued a service dog from a home where its owner was working.
More than 30,000 customers were without power in Michigan early Wednesday and an additional 10,000 customers were without power in Ohio, PowerOutage.us reported.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency in four counties.
Tuesday’s storms come a day after heavy rain, strong winds, hail and tornadoes battered parts of the central United States. The Plains and Midwest have been hit by tornadoes this spring.
It’s been a stormy week across the United States. The Midwest and South are expected to bear the brunt of severe weather throughout the rest of the week, including Indianapolis, Memphis, Nashville, St. Louis and Cincinnati, which have a population of more than 21 million. It should be sunny over the weekend.
A deadly tornado ripped through the Oklahoma town of 1,000 people Monday night. At least one person died and one is missing. Dozens of houses were destroyed.
It was the second tornado to hit Barnsdale in five weeks – the April 1 tornado, which had maximum winds of 90 to 100 mph, damaged homes and downed trees and power poles.
Areas such as Sulfur and Holdenville, Oklahoma, are still recovering from a tornado late last month that killed four people and left thousands without power.
Murphy reported from Oklahoma City. Associated Press reporters across the country contributed to this report, including Rio Yamat, Heather Hollingsworth, Colleen Slevin, Jim Salter, Kathy McCormack, Sarah Brumfield, Beatrice Dupuy and Alexa St. John.
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