The tornado that touched down in Gaylord on Friday was an EF3 with winds reaching 150 mph, causing two deaths and 44 injuries, according to officials and the National Weather Service.
The weather service previously listed maximum wind speeds of 140 mph.
The tornado ranks 16th in injuries and 21st in fatalities in Michigan since 1950, according to the weather service.
The last tornado to cause more injuries than Friday’s tornado in Gaylord was on July 2, 1997, in Highland Park, when an F2 tornado injured 90 people, said Jim Keysor, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gaylord.
There have been seven total deaths in Michigan due to a tornado since 1990, Keysor said.
“Among those seven, this is only the second time in the last 32 years that there have been multiple fatalities from a tornado,” he said. “This is pretty weird.”
PLUS: Gaylord tornado death toll at two, 44 people injured
Gilchrist surveys the damage
Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist II flew into Gaylord on Saturday afternoon and was able to survey some of the damage in the city before visiting the emergency command center set up by local authorities.
At a news conference around 4:30 p.m., Gilchrist expressed appreciation for all the work done by first responders in Gaylord over the past 24 hours, saying he and Gov. Whitmer were “praying for every soul that has been seen.” affected. ”
“Two Michiganders that we know of have lost their lives as a result of this tornado. We want them to know that everyone in Michigan will embrace those families,” he said, from a lectern at Kirtland Community College, dressed in dark jeans and a blue button-down shirt.
Gilchrist noted that Friday’s storm covered a lot of ground and caused widespread damage to both residential and commercial areas, and said it was important for everyone to try to understand the scale of the devastation.
The Lt. Governor reiterated the state’s commitment to ensuring everyone in the area gets all the resources they need. He said officials were working hard to restore power and internet, and also reminded affected residents to call 911 in an emergency.
Some areas have started to see their power return, according to Michigan State Police Sgt. Lieutenant Derrick Carroll, who was also present at the press conference. He said blackouts in the area were originally about 34%, but dropped to 21% on Saturday night. Many streetlights along Gaylord’s main street were turned back on Saturday afternoon.
According to Carroll, the death toll from Friday’s storm remains at two people. She said they weren’t going to provide a missing persons count because that number has been in constant flux.
“What has been happening is… we will find one person, but then we will get another phone call from loved ones, and another, and another,” he explained.
Carroll said the Red Cross had received an overwhelming number of donations and encouraged anyone in need of food, water and other supplies, such as baby diapers, to go to the E-Free Church in Gaylord, where a shelter has been set up.
Statistical ‘randomness’
Keysor said deaths and injuries occur infrequently during tornadoes in Michigan.
“In the state of Michigan, we don’t have as many tornadoes overall compared to other parts of the country,” Keysor said. “And then statistically, to get injuries or fatalities normally, these tornadoes have to go through populated areas.
“So the tornado that hit the western parts of Gaylord, a mile further west, for example, probably won’t hit anyone. center. And that just doesn’t happen that often.”
The last tornado to cause more injuries than Friday’s tornado in Gaylord was on July 2, 1997, in Highland Park, when an F2 tornado injured 90 people, Keysor said.
There have been seven total deaths in Michigan due to a tornado since 1990, Keysor said.
“Among those seven, this is only the second time in the last 32 years that there have been multiple fatalities from a tornado,” he said. “This is pretty weird.”
The state averages 15 tornadoes a year, according to the National Weather Service.
“Most tornadoes don’t cause any kind of death,” Keysor said. “If you look at the historical database, we go many, many years, sometimes decades without seeing a fatality from a tornado. Two would place it in the top 25 state tornado events of the past 70+ years in terms of fatalities. So that’s still an impressively rare number given the number of tornadoes that occur.”
The occurrence is even rarer in Otsego County, Keysor said looking at tornado data the weather service has tracked since 1950.
“This is the fifth tornado in the county since 1950, but none of the previous four have affected Gaylord,” he said. “There have been five that have at least touched somewhere in the county or in the last 70 years, but the first one directly impacted the largest population center in Gaylord.”
The two people in their 70s were reported dead at the Nottingham Forest Mobile Home Park. One was found dead, the other died later, police said.
“The two fatalities, for example, with this event in Gaylord happened in that trailer park, and that’s just a function of those structures not being very good at resisting high winds,” Keysor said. “They’re just not very good, so they tend to get thrown around a lot, and unfortunately we tend to see more deaths in those kinds of situations when tornadoes hit areas like that.”
Residents had little warning
According to Accuweather, forecasters first noticed the impending severe weather event before noon Friday. AccuWeather forecasters pinpointed between 2 pm and 8 pm as the most likely time for a tornado.
AccuWeather said it began sending urgent alerts at 3:28 p.m. to local businesses and through its mobile app to warn that a tornado was imminent.
The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning at 3:38 p.m. Friday for counties Antrim and Otsego, which included Gaylord.
Residents were warned of the impending tornado through Code Red alerts on their mobile devices. Gaylord doesn’t have tornado sirens.
Tornado sirens are too expensive to operate, Otsego emergency manager Jon Deming said Saturday. Deming said he didn’t have an immediate figure for how much the sirens would cost.
“That’s why we use Code Red and the state uses Code Red,” Deming said. “And it’s much faster and it gets to their phones. It hits TVs and everything. Mermaids are nice, but many communities just can’t afford to spend that much money on mermaids.”
As for property damage, Deming said they could estimate the financial impact of the tornado on Tuesday.
“There are a lot of damaged cars,” he said. “That will increase the price very quickly. And we have many houses.”
Reference-www.detroitnews.com