UPDATED 10:10 a.m. — Fulton Schools Superintendent Thomas Torok confirmed to the State Journal that the district had minor damage following the overnight storms, and that there may be multiple days of closures for the district due to power outages.
Torok said Consumers Energy said it might not be until the weekend that power is restored, and that there are around a dozen downed power lines around the school.
Fulton Schools is located about eight miles west of US 27 and about 10 miles east of Carson City.
“There’s only one driveway in and out of the school we can use because the power lines are down,” he said. “We can’t have school without power because the whole world runs with electricity. We have no phone systems, we can’t run water pumps to flush toilets, or do anything.
“The biggest issue we have, and throughout the entire area, there’s like 12 poles down in and around the school,” Torok said. “Our community in Middleton and Perrinton were hit very hard.”
Following the storm, there were leaks and damage to the roofs at both the elementary and middle and high school buildings. Torok said the damage is still being assessed and that the district’s insurance provider has been contacted.
Updates will be posted on the district’s Facebook page, Torok said.
ORIGINAL STORY — Severe thunderstorms that struck overnight may have included a tornado that touched down in the Carson City-Middleton area, according to the National Weather Service.
Widespread power outages and substantial damage were being reported in an area west of U.S. 127 and along M-57 where Gratiot, Clinton, Ionia and Montcalm counties meet on Wednesday morning, April 15.
The National Weather Service in Grand Rapids said the storm may have spawned a tornado that touched down, but confirmation won’t come until after a survey team sees the area today. The NWS said more information may be available on the potential tornado Wednesday afternoon.
The NWS Grand Rapids office issued more than a dozen tornado warnings as the storms moved through the Lower Peninsula, and weather offices in other areas issued more. NWS tornado warnings began to be issued shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday, April 14, and continued through early Wednesday.
Counties affected by warnings included all or part of Ingham, Van Buren, Calhoun, Kalamazoo, Barry, Eaton, Clinton, Ionia, Kent, Gratiot, Montcalm, Ottawa, Newaygo, Muskegon, Allegan, Shiawassee, Branch, Hillsdale, Monroe, Wayne, Washtenaw and Saginaw counties, according to the NWS Grand Rapids office and NWS posts on X throughout the night.
More than 58,000 electric customers in Michigan were without power early Wednesday because of the storms, most in a line from Kalamazoo east through Jackson toward Ann Arbor.
In the Lansing area, several thousand were without power, including more than 1,600 in the area affected by the reported tornado in Gratiot County.
This story will be updated.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Fulton Schools closed after storm damage, NWS surveying for tornado
Reporting by Dan Basso, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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