A tornado touched down in Freeland Tuesday afternoon, the National Weather Service confirmed, leaving power outages and a trail of damage in its wake.
Saginaw County Emergency Management reported 30-40 homes were damaged by the tornado. Roofs and siding were blown off of buildings, and several campers were overturned, a county emergency alert said.
Over 2,200 Consumers Energy customers were left without power in Saginaw County as of Tuesday night.
David Kook is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. He told WCMU the full extent of the damage is still not known.
“We're still collecting that information,” Kook said. “I think it was on the ground for roughly a mile and a half or so and went through a residential area.”
Kook said the weather system was unusual because it was not a thunderstorm, adding that it produced a tornado without any thunder and lightning.
Austin Wisniewski is the body shop manager of Freeland’s Wizard Automotive, which had its roof blown off by the tornado.
“Me and my dad were just sitting here talking about some jobs and it was just raining out, and then next thing you know, our front door blew open,” he said.
“It got super windy in here and it looked like it was hailing, but it was all the insulation coming out of my roof. It kind of sounded like there was a jet going off inside my shop; it lasted like 30 seconds and then that was it.”
Wisniewski said rainwater is leaking into the shop, adding to the damage he and his family have to repair. They spent the rest of the afternoon making sure neighboring businesses were alright while tending to their own.
Kook said the NWS is predicting more severe weather to roll through southeast Michigan in the next couple of days.
The forecast calls for more thunderstorms, which Kook said might produce high winds, hail and tornados.
