WOOD Radio Local News

WOOD Radio Local News

WOOD Radio Local News

 

NWS confirms tornadoes were in Kent, Ingham, Livingston, Wayne counties

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- National Weather Service officials in West Michigan are surveying damage and cleaning up debris caused by severe thunderstorms that swept through the state, knocking down thousands of power lines, uprooting trees, and tearing roofs off buildings.

This afternoon, they confirmed an EF-1 tornado touched down north of Grand Rapids in the Comstock Park area. In Ingham County, a confirmed tornado tore through Williamston and Webberville, near the I-96 corridor late last night before traveling into Livingston County. Several buildings and vehicles were damaged, and there was an unspecified number of injuries. On Friday afternoon, tornadoes were confirmed to have hit the Canton Township and Belleville areas of Wayne County. That brought to four the number of confirmed tornadoes, as of 3:15 p.m. Friday.

The Kent County Emergency Management is conducting a storm-damage survey. The Emergency Operations Center is trying to assess it and asks the public to use a QR code or website link to report damage to their property:

https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/6e1d8996f0704b9fab5395eecd63a65e

Updated information from the Kent County Sheriff's Office is that a 21-year-old woman was killed, along with two children - ages 1 and 3 - when a car lost lost control on 18 Mile Road near Harvard Avenue in Spencer Township, and struck an S-U-V. They were from Gowen. KCSO Sgt. Eric Brunner told WOOD Radio that the car had hydroplaned on the roadway. He said the man driving the car was seriously injured. The other driver suffered minor injuries.

About 171,532 Consumers Energy customers were waiting for power to be restored to their homes and businesses as of 2:30 p.m. Friday. And D-T-E Energy was reporting about 253,102 outages statewide. The numbers were much higher right after the storms hit Thursday night. The outages are widespread, but some of those most impacted areas include the east side of Grand Rapids, Oakfield Township near the M-57 corridor, Comstock Park, East Grand Rapids, Eastown, and Ada.

More information about outages and estimated times of restoration can be viewed on this Outage Map.

Consumers Energy Media Relations Manager Brian Wheeler was on West Michigan's Morning News. He said, "A lot of people are going to get their power back on today ... just given the scope and size of what we're talking about here, plan ahead. Look at that map, so that you can know what's going to happen and what your plan is, if you're going to be without power until Saturday, or maybe even Sunday."

He noted that more than one-thousand line workers are effecting repairs today.

"You can see from the power outages on our map, the path that storm took moving through West Michigan, the Mid-Michigan/Lansing area, down to the Detroit/Southeast Michigan area," Wheeler said.

Wheeler says you should stay at least 25 feet away from any downed line.

"You don't know if it has power in it or not. Call Consumers Energy at 800-477-5050," he said. "Our online outage map is going to be a good resource."

Wheeler said the estimated times for power restoration may move around a bit as repair crews continue to assess storm-related damages.

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