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Mar 01, 2024

At least 2 dead after violent storms, tornado hits Lansing, Ingham County

UPDATED 4:45 p.m. — The tornado that touched down along Interstate 96 in the Williamston area killed a 40-year-old Grand Rapids man, critically injuring several other people, damaged numerous vehicles

UPDATED 4:45 p.m. — The tornado that touched down along Interstate 96 in the Williamston area killed a 40-year-old Grand Rapids man, critically injuring several other people, damaged numerous vehicles and caused widespread damage.

The twister was part of a storm that also killed a Lansing woman and left utility and public works crews scrambling to clean up across mid-Michigan.

The National Weather Service said the tornado that touched down in Ingham County was an EF-2, with maximum wind speeds of 125 mph. The Enhanced Fujita Scale used to grade tornadoes goes from EF-0, the lowest, to EF-5, the most severe.

The weather service said teams were still working to determine its full path as it moved from the west, and it is believed to have been on the ground around 9:41 p.m. on Thursday.

Several confirmed tornadoes hit lower Michigan, including one north of Grand Rapids with an EF-1 rating, according to the weather service. An EF-1 tornado also struck west of Belleville and an EF-0 tornado struck Canton. Other possible tornado locations were being investigated.

Lansing officials said an 84-year-old woman died after a large tree fell on her home about 10:20 p.m. Officials said she was the only person inside the residence at the time of the incident.

Lansing police identified the woman as Vernita Payne.

Lansing Mayor Andy Schor declared a local emergency and said damage was reported all over the city, particularly on the south side. The Lansing Board of Water & Light said hundreds of power lines and dozens of poles and transformers were knocked down in the storm.

Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin joined Schor at an impromptu news conference in a church parking lot on West Homes Road. She offered federal assistance to the city and noted that heavy damage occurred throughout the region. She urged citizens to be patient while utility and cleanup crews did their work.

"Give them some grace, give them some time," she said.

Police completely closed I-96 between Williamston and Webberville on Thursday night. The eastbound lanes were reopened, at least temporarily, early Friday afternoon. The westbound lanes are likely to stay closed "for the foreseeable future" while debris is cleaned from the roadway, officials said.

"Needless to say that the highway between Williamston and Webberville is significantly damaged," Ingham County Sheriff Scott Wriggelsworth said. "Most of the billboards are gone, almost all the street signs are gone."

Wriggelsworth and other officials said the storm overturned 17 semi-trucks and caused damage along a 5- to 8-mile stretch of the freeway. Several people were critically injured.

Wriggelsworth said he did not know how many people were injured, nor did he have updated conditions on those injured.

"I personally spoke to one semi driver last night whose semi rolled several times down the embankment. He relayed to me that as the storm approached, he pulled over stopped, literally felt the cab of his semi compress and his entire semi went airborne with a 62,000 pound payload," the sheriff said Friday afternoon.

In the southern portion of the county, a driver crashed on Kinneville Road and was airlifted to a hospital, the sheriff said. Wriggelsworth described the Kinneville Road crash as weather-related.

"It appears the driver swerved to avoid some downed power lines, then crashed into some trees," he said. "At least one of the occupants in this crash was critical and Life Flight was called to transfer him to fly him to a local hospital."

UPDATED 12:30 P.M. — Preliminary information indicates that the tornado that touched down in Ingham County and entered Livingston County had wind speeds of roughly 90 mph, which would grade it as an EF-1 tornado, said Brian Cromwell, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office based in White Lake.

Cromwell added that as the tornado moved from Ingham County into Livingston County, it caused damage associated with an EF1. The Fujita Scale used to grade tornados goes from EF0, the lowest, to EF5, the most-severe.

Cromwell said that NWS teams were still working to determine its full path as it moved from the west, and it is believed to have been on the ground around 9:41 p.m. on Thursday.

Lansing officials said the person killed in Lansing Thursday evening was a woman who lived in the 1600 block of Martin Street in the Fabulous Acres neighborhood. A large tree fell on the home at about 10:20 p.m., fatally injuring her. Officials said she was the only person the residence at the time of the incident.

Check back for updates.

UPDATED 11:25 A.M. — Gary Showerman has been living on his farm in the Williamston area since he was 5 years old in the 1940s. His wife of 62 years, Sharon Showerman, has been there most of her life.

After Thursday night’s storms, their barn that has been standing for nearly eight decades was unrecognizable.

“You see this on the news and you feel sorry for other people, but you have no idea of the devastation until it hits closer to home,” Sharon Showerman said. She said the property was left to her husband by his parents when they passed away.

The barn was significantly damaged, losing nearly all of its roof and parts of its wood siding. Wood beams, branches and sheet metal blanketed various pieces of farm equipment.

Bits of the farm’s shed, which lost a majority of its walls and roofing, were littered around the property, including some pieces lodged in trees, poking through car windows and wrapped around a power line. Sharon Showerman said the property lost power Thursday night but that she hasn’t been able to get in contact with her utility provider to ensure the lines are disconnected.

“It is what it is,” Gary Showerman said. “Mother Nature, can’t do much about it.” He said the worst of the storm lasted only about five minutes.

The Showermans also said nobody in their family was hurt in the storm. The house where they were sheltering the storm was mostly undamaged, suffering only a few broken windows.

UPDATED 11:10 A.M. — In the Hamlin mobile park in the 5300 block of Van Orden Road in Leroy Township, residents were dealing with numerous downed trees, flooding and damaged siding.

Lisa DuLac, a resident of the neighborhood south of Webberville and I-96, was sheltering in her bathtub when a tree fell on her home.

“My house is pretty much in half,” she said. DuLac and her family feared for her safety at the time, but all residents of the neighborhood appeared to be uninjured, according to a local Facebook group.

The house of Forrest Hill, who lives in the community, experienced siding damage but avoided significant harm. He said a lightning strike mere hundreds of feet from the house woke up him and his housemates.

Further east in Fowlerville, Brandon Lang and his family were directly in the path of the tornado, they said, at their home on Judd Road.

The family of four took cover in a 3-foot-deep crawlspace beneath their house.

“We were ... on a dirt slab with concrete walls, cinder blocks around us, which was the foundation. I figured that was the safest place to be,” Lang said.

“We hid in there. And then, I think it was 9:55 (p.m.) or 10 … is when the tornado hit. It lasted about five minutes and then it went calm. It was extremely calm and quiet and then, five minutes later, it hit back again. We were just holding on to each other, praying that we weren't going to die.”

They eventually took cover in a nearby Walmart after the storm.

“We booked it as fast as we could to the Fowlerville Walmart," Lang said. "We wanted to just get to an open area without trees because I was like, ‘We can't make it through a second time, a second hit (to) our house is going to take us down.’ We just drove as fast as we could, dodging trees on the dirt roads, going through people’s yards because there was no way to get out."

Residents south of Fowlerville in Iosco Township suffered damage, too. Tanya Caswell was in the bedroom of her home on Lang Road when a large, 28-year-old tree uprooted and landed on the roof above her head.

“It's a big beautiful tree, or it was,” Caswell said. “It was like three big trunks, nice (and) widespread and it's down. The tree roots are probably twice as tall as me.”

The tree didn’t break through the roof, and neither Caswell nor her husband were injured, but the crash gave them a scare.

“It was very loud," she said. "I screamed.”

Check back for updates.

READ MORE: 'Praying we weren't going to die': Fowlerville family talks surviving the suspected tornado

UPDATED 9:50 A.M. — Ingham County Emergency Management & Homeland Security official Rob Dale said dozens of first responders are driving the roads between Williamston and Webberville, the hardest hit area from Thursday night's storm, to check on people.

He wasn’t aware of anyone injured inside buildings, but the checks are happening since he considers Interstate 96, which connects the two communities, “an absolute disaster.”

“Now that the sun has come up, we’re able to see more damage,” he said.

Semi trucks and vehicles were blown over on the westbound side the highway, and trees and branches are strewn across the east bound lanes.

The tornado, Dale said, “almost paralleled” the expressway.

Grand River Avenue is congested, he said, because of the closed highway.

Check back for updates.

READ MORE: Crews scramble to restore power to tens of thousands of customers across Lansing region

UPDATED 9:30 A.M. — No staff or residents were injured at the Haven of Rest senior living facility in Wheatfield Township, owner LeAnn Williams said.

But significant portions of the roof of the facility in the 2400 block of North Williamston Road were lost to the storm. The home is located south of Williamston and Interstate 96.Shingles littered the property Friday morning as crews worked to install a tarp over the damaged portions of the roof. The facility is not currently inhabitable and all 15 residents were transferred to another facility, Williams said.Yellow caution tape sealed off each of the entrances because the building was not safe to enter. During the storm, a piece of debris hit a resident of the building but left her uninjured, Williams said.Several large trees on and around the property had snapped, along with a plastic shed that was mangled by the high winds. Branches, leaves and construction materials were strewn about the grass as owners evaluated the future of the facility.“It was a beautiful property,” Williams said.

She did not have an estimate for when the facility would reopen.

Check back for updates.

READ MORE:'It was scary': Residents share photos, experiences of tornado and heavy storms in Lansing area

UPDATED 8:10 A.M. — At least two people are dead after violent storms that spawned a tornado rolled through Greater Lansing overnight.

One person was killed on Interstate 96 in the Williamston area, where a tornado caused widespread damage and closed the freeway in both directions late Thursday evening, Ingham County Emergency Management & Homeland Security official Rob Dale confirmed. No other details were immediately available. Numerous vehicles were damaged along that portion of the freeway near the Ingham and Livingston county line.

I-96 was closed in both directions between Williamston Road and M-52 for hours, although the eastbound lanes were reopened around noon Friday, the Michigan Department of Transportation said.

The Ingham County Sheriff’s Office said more than 25 vehicles along I-96 in that area were “severely damaged” and there were several people seriously injured in addition to the person killed. Officials asked people to avoid the area. The bulk of the damage appears to be in Wheatfield and Leroy townships, officials said.

A woman was killed when a large tree fell on her home in the 1600 bock of Martin Street, in the Fabulous Acres neighborhood, about 10:20 p.m. Thursday, city officials said. The Lansing Fire Department extricated a person from the home, who was transported to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead, Lansing police spokeswoman Jordan Gulkis said.

No other deaths or injuries were reported, but storm damage occurred "everywhere" around the city, particularly on the south side, Mayor Andy Schor said during an impromptu news conference in a church parking lot on West Holmes Road, where a tree brought down power lines and snapped a utility pole.

Lansing police identified the woman who died as Vernita Payne, 84. Schor said police were trying to determine whether a dog in the home also died.

Schor, who was joined at the news conference by Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin and several other city officials, later signed a local emergency declaration Friday. Slotkin offered federal assistance to the city and noted that heavy damage occurred throughout the region.

She urged citizens to be patient while utility and cleanup crews did their work.

"Give them some grace, give them some time," she said.

On Friday morning, the National Weather Service in White Lake Township said a survey team was en route to evaluate tornado damage and suggested a twister might have passed right over I-96.

The tornado warning was for between 9:30 p.m. to 10:15 p.m., and it’s possible the tornado was in the area for the bulk of that time an official said. He estimated the eastern edge of Ingham County got as much 2 ½ inches of rain.

Check back for updates.

UPDATE 6:45 A.M. — Ingham County officials said they would use drones Friday to assess damage from a storm and tornado that left people injured on I-96. They confirmed injuries in an early morning Facebook post.

"Unfortunately there were some injuries in some cars and trucks on the expressway when the tornado hit. Fire departments have checked on the damaged houses and destroyed barns and while people are shaken up, there are no injuries to report from buildings."

"Our drone team is surveying some of the damage now and MSP Aviation is on the way to make a few passes as well," officials said. "We will fly again at daylight to do a full analysis of the damage and assist the National Weather Service as we determine the strength and intensity of what most likely was a tornado."

I-96 was closed in both directions between Williamston Road and M-52 due to trees down over the expressway, and many roads in and around Williamston and Webberville remain impassible due to trees. Officials asked people to Avoid driving in that part of the county.

Eaton County officials declared a state of emergency because of damage from the storm and loss of power.

The Lansing Board of Water & Light reported more than 29,000 customers without power as of 7 a.m. Nearly 185,000 Consumer's Energy customers were without power largely along the I-96 corridor from Grand Rapids to Lansing and then further south through Jackson County and near Adrian. Several thousand DTE Energy customers in the Williamston and Webberville areas had their power knocked out by the storm.

If you have photos or video of the storm, or witnessed damage, send information to Editor Susan Vela at [email protected] or [email protected].

Check back for updates.

ORIGINAL STORY: LANSING — A series of severe thunderstorms raced across the Lansing area Thursday night, with Ingham County emergency officials saying a funnel cloud touched down in the the eastern portion of the county.

"Radar indicates a tornado on the ground near I-96 south of Williamston. TAKE COVER NOW in the Williamston / Webberville areas," Ingham County emergency officials said in an emergency alert just before 9:40 p.m. The warning expired at 10 p.m.

Officials in an email about 11:30 p.m. Thursday evening urged residents to avoid driving in the northeast portion of Ingham County due to hazards.

Lt. Michael Randall of the Northeast Ingham Emergency Services Authority said emergency personnel were dispatched to Haven of Rest Senior Care Living in Williamston, where 15 residents were evacuated after devastating winds damaged the facility. There was one minor injury, Randall said.

"All the damage was from the wind," he said shortly after midnight Friday. "It does appear something had come through here, either a straight line wind or a tornado. ... We cannot confirm it right now."

Heavy rain and strong winds moving in from the west pummeled the Lansing region, leaving standing water on many roads and many trees in roadways.

By 10:50 p.m. officials had shut down Interstate 96 in both directions from the Williamston area exit 117 east toward the Livingston County line due in part to power lines across the freeway. Numerous vehicles were stopped along the shoulder of the freeway and some appeared to be damaged.

Ingham County Emergency Management in a Facebook post said "THU 9:48PM The tornado has left the county. A strong line of storms continues to move through the south part of the county including Dansville Stockbridge and Leslie. The severe weather threat has ended to the north and west, so Lansing / EL / Williamston / Mason / Holt are still getting thunderstorms but no severe winds.

"DO NOT GO OUT ON THE ROADS UNLESS YOU HAVE TO! Trees are down all across the county along with power lines."

The department also confirmed a tornado in the Williamston area shortly before 10 p.m.

Livingston County emergency officials said radar indicated a large tornado heading from the Webberville area toward Fowlerville and urged residents to take shelter immediately. The tornado warning there expired about 10:15, officials said, but they warned residents about winds up to 70 mph.

At 10:30 p.m. the National Weather Service office in White Lake posted on X, formerly Twitter, that "Severe thunderstorms are ongoing for areas along and south of M-59. If you are in a Severe Thunderstorm Warning, take shelter! Storms have a history of producing wind gusts to 70 mph, rotation, large hail, and torrential downpours."

About 10:15 p.m. Thursday night, Eaton County 911 officials said the phone system was experiencing "overwhelming call volume. If you have an emergency, call/text 911. All other reports, please text 911 or call later."

Emergency sirens sounded in Charlotte and Mason among other communities.

Ingham County Emergency Management said shortly after 9 p.m. that a house in the Holt area caught fire after being struck by lightning.

More than 29,000 Lansing Board of Water & Light customers were without power, according to the utility's outage map. Consumers Energy's outage map indicated more than 188,000 customers were without electricity spanning from Grand Rapids across the Lansing region to Adrian, and there were also numerous outages in Shiawassee County and the Owosso area.

There was damage to the west of Lansing in Ionia County as well. Ionia County Sheriff's Office officials said they had received reports of "very high winds and trees down along the entire west side of the county."

CEO of the Small Business Association of Michigan and former Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, who lives in the Portland area, posted on X a video that showed numerous tree branches down in a neighborhood.

A severe thunderstorm watch remained in effect for more than 40 southern Michigan counties, including the Greater Lansing area, until 1 a.m. according to the National Weather Service.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Livingston Daily reporters Cassandra Lybrink, Patricia Alvord and Tess Ware contribued.