A rare tornado tore through a small northern Michigan community on Friday, causing injuries, overturning vehicles, ripping roofs off buildings and causing other damage.
State police said ambulances took the injured to hospitals after the tornado hit Gaylord, a city of about 4,200 people about 230 miles (370 kilometers) northwest of Detroit. There were no confirmed deaths, the agency said.
Eddie Thrasher, 55, said he was sitting in his car outside an auto parts store when the tornado appeared to appear above him.
“There are businesses with roofs ripped off, a row of industrial-type warehouses,” Thrasher said. “RVs were overturned and destroyed. There were a lot of emergency vehicles heading from the east side of town.”
Read more:
Tornado passes through parts of Kansas, causes severe damage: ‘completely wiped out’
He said he ran to the store to hold on.
“My adrenaline was going crazy,” Thrasher said. “In less than five minutes it was over.”
The tornado, which passed through the city around 3:45 p.m., damaged several homes and downed trees and power lines that blocked roads, authorities said. Images shared on social media showed multiple RVs smashed to pieces in a parking lot.
Mike Klepadlo, owner of Alter-Start North, an auto repair shop, said he and his workers took refuge in a bathroom.
“I am lucky to be alive. He blew up the back of the building,” she said. “Twenty feet (6 meters) of the back wall is gone. The entire roof is missing. At least half of the building is still here. It is bad.”
Video posted on social media showed extensive damage along Gaylord’s main street. One building appeared to have largely collapsed and a Goodwill store was badly damaged. A collapsed utility pole lay on the side of the road, and debris, including what appeared to be power lines and parts of a Marathon gas station, was strewn across the street.
Otsego Memorial Hospital was not damaged but was running on a generator, spokesman Brian Lawson said.
He said he did not know how many injured people were being treated at the hospital. Meanwhile, the Red Cross was setting up a shelter in a church.
Jim Keysor, a Gaylord-based National Weather Service meteorologist, said extreme winds are rare in that part of Michigan because the Great Lakes absorb storm energy, especially in early spring when the lakes are very cold. .
“Many children and young adults would never have experienced direct severe weather if they had lived in Gaylord their entire lives,” he said.
The last time Gaylord had a strong windstorm was in 1998, when straight-line winds reached 100 mph, Keysor said.
Brandie Slough, 42, said she and a teenage daughter sought safety in a bathroom at Culver’s. The windows of the fast food restaurant were blown out as they left, and her truck flipped on its roof in the parking lot.
“We shake our heads in disbelief, but are thankful to be safe. At that point, who cares about the truck,” Slough said.
Gaylord, known as the “Alpine Village”, is scheduled to celebrate his 100th birthday this year, with a centenary celebration including a parade and open house at City Hall later this summer.
The community also holds the annual Alpenfest in July, an Alpine-inspired celebration that honors the city’s heritage and a partnership with a sister city in Switzerland.
White reported from Detroit. AP reporters Corey Williams in Detroit, Ken Kusmer in Indianapolis, Sara Burnett in Chicago and Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis contributed.
© 2022 The Canadian Press
Reference-globalnews.ca