Tornado damages beloved corn maze, haunted trail in Williamston
WILLIAMSTON, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - Residents in mid-Michigan are just beginning to pick up the pieces after an EF-1 tornado ripped through the area last week.
The damage is widespread with no cost estimate just yet on how much it will take to rebuild, especially for residents like Mark Benjamin, who runs a beloved corn maze and haunted trail complete with animatronic monsters.
"We stored all of our props for our haunted trail, animatronic monsters, and all that is buried underneath there," Benjamin said.
His neighborhood, just south of I-96 saw major damage on Thursday night. Officials say it will take weeks if not months to estimate the cost of the storm, but Benjamin already has a guess at his cost.
"There's probably $60,000 worth of animatronics in here stuck and this guy is called Impaled that was his real name for this animatronic prop before he got impaled again," Benjamin said.
Despite the significant damage to property, Benjamin's family who all live nearby are thankfully safe and accounted for. In total, the tornado is responsible for five deaths so far.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued states of emergency last week for Wayne and Monroe counties, then expanded it to include Ingham, Eaton and Livingston counties.
"This is going to be a couple year clean up-- there's so much debris out here in my fields, the combine when it goes through the harvest this fall I'm literally going to be walking next to the combine pulling two-by-fours and nails out of its way and then coming back with wagons and picking it all up. It's just going to be forever to get it clean," Benjamin said.
He says that he does plan to start over and bring this well-loved fall fun back-- but probably not this fall. In the meantime, he is helping to design and operate another corn maze in Lansing.
"Everyone can still get their fall fun at the end of September at Cottage Gardens in Lansing," Benjamin said.
