A mixture of rough weather hit Michigan yesterday, with severe thunderstorms and high winds battering the Lower Peninsula and heavy snow predicted for the Upper Peninsula.
In Calhoun County, winds gusting up to 71 mph destroyed eight mobile homes south of Tekonsha, said John Townsend, director of the county”s Office of Emergency Services.
Seven residents of the mobile home park were released from local hospitals after being treated for minor injuries, Townsend said. The Red Cross was arranging for shelter for seven families left homeless by the storm, he said.
At least 20 residences elsewhere in Calhoun County sustained wind damage, Townsend said.
Wind gusts toppled trees and power lines, knocking out electrical service to 44,000 Consumers Energy customers and 20,000 Detroit Edison customers, the utilities said.
The hardest-hit area served by Consumers was Kalamazoo, where 15,000 customers were without power last night, spokesman Timothy Pietryga said. Service might not be restored to the last of those customers until midnight tonight, he said.
Detroit Edison spokesman Scott Simons said 11,000 customers in Oakland County were without electricity last night. “The storms are still going on, so it”s a little early to assess total damage and total outages,” he said. “High winds are expected until (today), so there could be more.”
The National Weather Service had tornado watches in effect for eastern and central Lower Michigan, along a line from southern Lake Michigan to southern Lake Huron, until shortly before 10 p.m.
The weather service issued tornado warnings earlier yesterday for Saginaw, Tuscola, Gratiot, Livingston and Oakland counties. But police emergency dispatchers in those counties said there had been no confirmed reports of funnel clouds touching down.
Highs reached the low 70s yesterday afternoon in Detroit, Pontiac, Mount Clemens and Flint. But highs in the Lower Peninsula were expected to reach only the low to mid 40s Thursday, with rain and snow showers likely through Saturday throughout the region, the weather service said.
In the Upper Peninsula, forecasters warned of storms possibly as intense as the one that caused the storied sinking of the freighter Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975.
“I wouldn”t want to be out on the lake,” weather service meteorologist John Dee told The Daily Mining Gazette of Houghton.