7 tornados confirmed as Michigan storms down trees and power lines; 5 people killed

At least seven tornados touched down in Michigan as part of severe storms powered by strong winds that killed five people, while downing trees, tearing roofs off buildings and leaving hundreds of thousands of customers without power, officials said.

The National Weather Service says six of those tornadoes were across southeast Michigan

On Friday, NWA confirmed that an EF-1 tornado with winds of 90 mph (145 kph) crossed from Ingham County into the western edge of adjacent Livingston County on Thursday night.

A weaker EF-0 tornado with peak winds of 80 mph (128 kph) was on the ground for less than two miles in Wayne County's Canton Township, west of Detroit, the weather service said. That tornado caused a tree to fall into a house, said meteorologist Sara Schultz.

Preliminary information shows that after entering Livingston County, the EF-1 tornado remained on the ground for a mile or less before "weakening and lifting," said Dave Gurney, a meteorologist with the weather service's office in Oakland County's White Lake Township.

The weather services say another EF-1 tornado touched down just west of Belleville. 

A confirmed tornado touched down in Kent County with peak winds reaching 110 mph.

Another confirmed EF-1 tornado touched down south of Newport with peak winds of 100 mph.

NWS confirmed an EF-1 tornado in Gibraltar that hit a maximum windspeed of 90 mph. Officials say the tornado lasted for about two minutes with a path of 1.4 miles.

Officials confirmed that an EF-1 tornado touched down on Carleton Rockwood Road, east of Telegraph Road within Monroe and Wayne counties.

The storm featured lightning displays erupting across the night sky and dumped multiple inches of rain on communities across the lower portion of the state.

In western Michigan, the Kent County Sheriff's Office said a 21-year-old woman and two girls, ages 1 and 3, died Thursday night after two vehicles collided head-on as it was raining.

The sheriff's office said a 22-year-old Gowen man who was driving the car carrying the woman and two girls was seriously injured in the crash, which occurred when his car struck an SUV. That vehicle's driver suffered minor injuries.

In Lansing, the state capital, an 84-year-old woman died Thursday night after a tree fell on a home. Firefighters extricated the woman from the home, but she was pronounced dead at a hospital, Lansing Police Department spokeswoman Jordan Gulkis said.

In Ingham County, where Lansing is located, the sheriff's office said Friday that one person was confirmed dead and several people severely injured as more than 25 vehicles were severely damaged along Interstate 96.

It was not immediately clear early Friday afternoon if the storm or a crash was responsible for the wrecks on the freeway.

Trees were uprooted, and some roofs collapsed during Thursday's storms, leaving many roads closed due to fallen trees and power lines.

In the north Detroit suburb of Southfield, Muqitu Berry said he was in his ranch home about 9:30 p.m. Thursday when a large part of the trunk of a neighbor's tree came crashing down, sounding "like a train coming through."

The tree ended up across the front of Berry's driveway and yard and took down power lines, dropping them onto his driveway and at least one vehicle, leaving Berry and his neighbors without power.

"I can't get out of my driveway. I can't go anywhere," Berry said Friday morning. "We're out of power, and it's very frustrating."

Wayne County Executive Warren Evans declared a state of emergency Friday in Michigan's largest county, which includes Detroit, due to power outages, flooding, fallen trees and power lines and storm debris.

The county also warned residents to avoid any contact with several rivers after flooding caused municipalities to discharge partially or fully untreated wastewater into various waterways.

In Macomb County, northeast of Detroit, several thousand basements in Eastpointe and St. Clair Shores were spared flooding when stormwater and wastewater were discharged to Lake St. Clair through an emergency bypass system, Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller said. The bypass has been used only three times since 2017 but twice this week.

"Apparently, these storms have become our new normal," Miller said. "This has been like a tropical storm, and both government and residents will need to make appropriate preparations whenever possible."

Canton Township, a community of some 100,000 west of Detroit, was hit earlier this week by flooding in its downtown business district. Then Thursday night's storms produced what are believed to be "two at least heavy wind shears, if not tornadoes," said township supervisor Anne Marie Graham-Hudak.

"Some of our parks are destroyed," she said, adding that the township received calls from 200 residents regarding flooding in their basements.

More than 460,000 customers in Michigan and over 218,000 in Ohio were without power as of about 11:30 a.m. Friday, according to the Poweroutage.us website.

Thursday night's storms followed a round of heavy rain Wednesday that left areas in southeast Michigan with over 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) of rain by Thursday morning, resulting in street flooding in the Detroit area, including tunnels leading to Detroit Metropolitan Airport in the suburb of Romulus, officials said. Officials reopened the airport's McNamara Terminal on Thursday afternoon. Severe storms developed in the western part of the state in the afternoon.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday declared a state of emergency for Wayne and Monroe counties, which makes available state resources to help with response and recovery efforts related to storm damage.

The storms pushed east across Lake Erie and into northeast Ohio, uprooting trees and leaving thousands of homes and businesses without power.

A tornado also tore through part of Cleveland late Thursday night. It's path was about 150 yards (137 meters) wide and nearly a mile long.

No injuries were reported, but several buildings were severely damaged, including the 143-year-old New Life at Calvary Church that lost its roof. Church leaders asked members to stay away from the building.

"2 Timothy 4:17 says, the Lord stood with me and gave me strength," Pastor Kellie Sullivan said in a press release. "Our church has faced major loss and we praise God that no one was hurt. Please pray for our church as we start to rebuild."

Parts of the western United States have been deluged in recent weeks with rain from Tropical Storm Hilary, and much of the central U.S. was beaten down by deadly sweltering heat. In Hawaii and Washington, emergency crews battled catastrophic wildfires.

Scientists say that without extensive study they cannot directly link a single weather event to climate change, but that climate change is responsible for more intense and more frequent extreme events such as storms, droughts, floods and wildfires. Climate change is largely caused by human activities that emit carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, according to the vast majority of peer-reviewed studies, science organizations and climate scientists.

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Associated Press reporters Rick Callahan in Indianapolis and Ed White in Detroit contributed to this story.

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