Severe thunderstorms and strong winds overnight into Wednesday, April 15, toppled trees, took down power lines and even damaged buildings like the University of Michigan’s Yost Ice Arena in an onslaught of stormy weather in southeastern Michigan that was still being evaluated for the potential tornadoes as of Wednesday afternoon. The damage comes ahead of more expected storms in the region.
Outside the Yost Ice Arena, home to the men’s ice hockey team in hard-hit Washtenaw County, shiny metal was twisted up on the sidewalks surrounding the brick. On the other side of Ann Arbor, nearby residents walked around assessing the damage to trees, light posts and fences at Veterans Memorial Park as crews worked on clearing parking lots for the stores across the street. The ice rink and pool building lost an entire side wall.
Brandon Bauer, 46, said he saw a funnel through his sliding glass door at his house near the park where he walked around on Wednesday afternoon to see where some of the worst storm damage occurred. He said he’s lived in Ann Arbor his whole life and has watched documentaries about tornadoes. This was his first time seeing one up close.
“I didn’t sleep. I haven’t slept. With adrenaline and (my) heart racing after that, I couldn’t sleep. It’s just crazy.”
His advice for people who get tornado warnings is, “Don’t go back to sleep.” He doesn’t have a basement but planned to go into his bathroom if he saw it move toward his house.
“What really alerted me was the second siren that went off,” he said. “Because usually it’s one and done. I never heard two like that. And after that second one, it was pretty quick after that things escalated.”
The Worth family visited the park, too, less than 24 hours after their 6-year-old daughter had practice there on Tuesday, April 13. Nicole Worth, 40, said they’d sat on bleachers that, after the storm, were blown over and yards away from where they’d been.
The family had been home when the storms hit, and went down to the basement when they heard the sirens, said Louis Worth, 39.
“Take it seriously when there’s a severe weather threat,” Louis Worth said. “I’m always watching the weather, and I thought, oh, it’s probably nothing tonight. You know, we’re used to it. And it was something.”
Their 8-year-old son had baseball games planned at the fields, but Nicole Worth said the team likely won’t play.
The city of Ann Arbor had been weighing whether to decommission such sirens as newer alert technologies arose, but Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor announced in a Facebook post on Wednesday discussing the storm damage that the city would keep the sirens.
“We planned on making the announcement on Monday with the release of the Administrator’s budget, but so folks know now, after public input, we are going to continue to maintain our siren system,” he said.
Wind damage extended from Ann Arbor to Downriver.
In Ypsilanti, gusts were recorded at 63 mph. In Romulus, the weather service said, strong winds downed more power lines. There also were reports of downed trees and other damage in Garden City, Dearborn and Wayne. And in Melvindale, winds knocked a hole into a Subway at the corner of Outer Drive and Dix-Toledo Road, apparently stripping the bricks from the restaurant’s outer wall.
Still, the worst of it seemed to be in Washtenaw County, according to the National Weather Service, with winds gusting as high as 70 mph at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. There, Yost Ice Arena, TV reports said, lost part of its roof, and multiple trees were down.
WJBK-TV (Channel 2) reported that a vehicle was flipped on its side.
Ann Arbor Public Schools were closed on Wednesday as a result of a “fiber outage affecting all schools,” the district said on its website. The outage downed all of the district’s phone systems, camera systems, building access and safety systems.
The Ann Arbor Fire Department responded to more than 75 calls, according to a Facebook post. As of 5:20 a.m. there were no injuries.
The weather service sent investigators to various locations where there was damage to determine whether any tornadoes had touched down, which would not have been possible to spot in the dark but could be confirmed, in part, by damage reports.
As of 2:39 p.m., the National Weather Service had not confirmed whether there was a tornado in Ann Arbor.
“It has been quite a spring,” Sara Schultz, with the National Weather Service in White Lake Township. “The whole state has been under a flood watch.”
An estimated 1½-2½ inches of rain fell overnight.
The weather in northern Michigan is even more challenging, Schultz said, with a half-dozen dams at risk of bursting, because there, in addition to rain, snow is melting, causing water levels to rise and serious flooding.
And the worst of it may still be coming: More storms and rain are forecasted this week, with another 1-2 or even up to 3 more inches of rain in the southern part of Michigan expected over the next two days.
(This story has been updated with additional information.)
Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Winds rip part of roof off Yost Arena in Ann Arbor; more storms coming
Reporting by Frank Witsil, Natalie Davies and Darcie Moran, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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