Tornadoes that hit Michigan on Tuesday evening ripped the roof off a FedEx building in Portage, partially collapsing the structure and trapping 50 people inside, Kalamazoo county authorities said. Elsewhere in the state, thousands of residents were without power and faced a deluge of hail and tornado warnings amid severe thunderstorms.
“TAKE COVER NOW,” the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids warned in a post directed at Portage residents on its Facebook page.
Damage photos coming in out of Portage, MI pic.twitter.com/t9azc2ucUp
— Sara Flynn (@SaraFlynnWX) May 7, 2024
First responders were trying to get people out but were impeded by downed power lines, said Kalamazoo emergency management.
FedEx said the company was monitoring the situation and issued a statement expressing concern. “Our thoughts are with those affected by the tornado in Portage, Michigan, and we are grateful there were no serious injuries resulting from the damage to our facility at 6701 Portage Road. We continue to assess the damage, and we are implementing contingency plans to lessen any potential impacts on service. Customers with questions about their shipments can check fedex.com for updates,” Shannon Davis with FedEx media relations said.
The tornado targeting Portage, about 80 miles south-west of Lansing, Michigan’s capitol, had been reported on the ground damaging buildings and knocking down multiple trees and power lines throughout the area, according to Facebook posts from the Kalamazoo county sheriff’s office. The NWS also declared a tornado emergency in Union City, more than 120 miles east of Portage.
Michiganders joined more than 10 million people in parts of Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky who also faced storms and tornadoes on Tuesday.
Significant #TORNADO #DAMAGE in Portage, #Michigan. Several trailer park homes are gone. #MIwx
— Chicago & Midwest Storm Chasers (@ChicagoMWeather) May 7, 2024
Contact Curtislergner@gmail.com for licensing. pic.twitter.com/QAZTEs1hG5
The severe weather in Michigan followed a deadly tornado and storm in Barnsdall, a small town in Oklahoma that is home to around 1,000 residents, that left one person dead, five injured and dozens of homes damaged on Monday night and early Tuesday morning, according to the local television news station KOCO. This was just one of more than a dozen tornadoes that tore through central US states including Kansas, South Dakota, and Missouri on Monday and Tuesday.
Less than two weeks earlier, another tornado ripped through Nebraska and Iowa, with the most damage happening in Omaha, where hundreds of homes and structures and several miles of farmland were destroyed, the Associated Press reported. And in Lancaster county, home to Lincoln, the capital of Nebraska, 70 people were trapped inside an industrial building that had collapsed.
This most recent devastation in Michigan follows nearly two months of destruction across the midwest, including a cluster of more than 10 tornadoes in mid-March that swept through five states including Indiana and Ohio. At least three people were killed in those storms and more than 100 were injured.
